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SAYBROOK'S QUAD RIMILLENIA T.. 



COMMEMORATION 



250111 Anniversary 



SelUemenl of Saybrook, 



NOVEMBER 27, 1885. 



HARTFORD : 

PRESS OF CLARK & SMITH 

18S6. 



^• 






Gift 



^^' 



TO OUR BRAVE ANCESTORS, 
THE NOBLE MEN AND WOMEN 

WHO hy their indomitable energy and courage 

MADE A HOME IN THIS NEW WORLD, 

DO WE THEIR DAUGHTERS IN LOVING MEMORY 

DEDICATE THIS WORK. 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



" I ^HE approaching 250th anniversary of the settlement of Say- 
brook, in the State of Connecticut, having attracted pubhc 
attention, a special town meeting of the citizens of Old Saybrook 
was called in reference thereto, and was held on the 9th day of 
March, A. D. 1885. 

At that meeting Samuel H. Lord, Esq., was chosen moderator, 
and the following preamble and resolution were adopted : — 

Whereas : The present year marks an epoch in the history of Say- 
brook, it being the 250th anniversary of its first settlement, A. D. 
1635, by English colonists ; therefore be it 

Resolved : That a committee be appointed to take into consider- 
ation the subject of an appropriate celebration of the event, to 
designate the time of such celebration, the probable expense of 
the same, and report at a future meeting. 

A committee of nineteen persons, of whom four were ladies, and 
all selected from the old families of the town, was then appointed. 
At an adjourned town meeting, held on the 20th of that month, 
the sum of $200.00 was voted to be placed at the disposition of 
the committee for the purposes of the celebration ; and it was 
also voted to invite the towns which were a part of the original 
town of Saybrook, viz. : Chester, Essex, Saybrook, Westbrook, 
Lyme, Old Lyme, and East Lyme, to participate in the occasion, 
and appropriate therefor the sum of $100.00 each. 

This committee organized, and held several meetings, but 
questions having arisen as to the legality of such town appropria- 
tions, the project was finally abandoned by the committee. 



6 Prefatory Note. 

But the interest in the subject that had been awakened moved 
the ladies numerously to assemble, and take such action in favor 
of the commemoration of the event, as was then practicable. 

As the result of that action, the celebration took place on 
Friday, the 27th day of November, 1885, in the presence of a 
large and appreciative audience, at the Congregational Church in 
Old Saybrook, which had been handsomely decorated for the 
occasion. 

The exercises commenced at one o'clock p. m. and Avere 
concluded at half-past four. 

The Ladies' Committees were as follows, viz. : — 

/;/ the principal Executive Charge of Arrangements : 

MISS HETTY B. H. WOOD, Chairman, 
MRS. JOHN D. INGRAHAM, 
MRS. AMOS S. CHESEBROUGH, 
MISS AGNES A. ACTON, 
MISS FRANCES C. SHEPARD, 
MISS GRACE E. SPENCER. 

On Music : 

MRS. WILLIAM E. CLARK, 
MISS MARIA L. DICKINSON, 
MRS. C. P. DAVIS. 

On Decorations : 

MRS. CHARLES W. MORSE, 
MRS. DAVID W. CLARKE, 
MRS. SAMUEL H. PRATT. 



SAYBROOK'S QUADRIMILLENIAL. 

COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES. 



A FTER an organ voluntary, rendered by MRS. C. P. 
^ Davis, a chorus choir sang the following hymn : 



THE ROCK OF THE PILGRIMS." 



A rock in the wilderness welcomed our sires 

From homes far away o'er the dark rolling sea ; 

On that holy altar they kindled the fires, 

Jehovah, which glow in our bosoms for Thee. 

Thy blessings descended in sunshine and shower, 
Or rose from the soil that was sown by Thy hand. 

The mountain and valley rejoiced in Thy power. 
And heaven encircled and smiled on the land. 

In church and cathedral we kneel in our prayer, 
Their temple and chapel were valley and hill ; 

But God is the same in aisle or the air, 

And He is the rock that we lean upon slill. 

The Hon. John Allen, Chairman of the meeting, then 
spoke as follows : — 
Friends and Fcllozv- Citirjens : 

Under the auspices of a committee of ladies of the town of 
Old Saybrook,— worthy descendants of the Pilgrim mothers, 
—you have met to celebrate the 250th anniversary, occur- 
ring this year and month, of the first settlement of Saybrook 
by English colonists. 



8 Sayb7'OoJSs Oiiadriinillcnial. 

The history of that settlement, which will be outlined to 
you to-day, is that of a free and brave people, our Puritan 
ancestors, accepting the struggle and suffering incident to the 
achievement of a more perfect degree of civil and religious 
freedom. 

Restricted by natural barriers to commerce from becom- 
ing a populous city, Saybrook has not arisen to the business 
importance its founders anticipated, but their descendants 
have maintained here a well-ordered, prosperous community, 
and have creditably participated in shaping the present 
civilization of the nation, and in framing and judicially inter- 
preting its laws. 

Prayer was offered by the Rev. BERNARD Paine, Pastor 
of the Congregational Church. 

The Rev. Samuel Hart, D. D., Professor in Trinity 
College, Hartford, a native of Saybrook, was then introduced 
and made an address on 

"THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT." 

Mr. CJiairnian, Citizens of our Ancient Toivn, Ladies and 
Gentlemen : 

One does not apologize for obeying the commands of a 
mother. Our common mother, the venerable village of Say- 
brook, has not passed through her quarter of a millenium 
without some trials and some disturbances of her quiet; but 
on the whole her two hundred and fifty years have been so 
peaceful, the wrinkles have gathered so slowly on her brow, 
and so little change has found its way into either her outward 
circumstances or her inner life, that she did not know until 
the anniversary was close upon her that she had almost 
reached a birthday of which she might well be especially 
proud, and to the observance of which she would certainly 



The History of the Early Settlement. 9 

wish to invite all her sons and daughters. As I am speaking 
to none who do not love and respect her, perhaps you will 
allow me to say that when it was suggested to her that the 
day was approaching, she seemed to be a little hard of hear- 
ing; and then she did not, we thought, quite understand the 
meaning of what we said; the mention of a number, and that 
a pretty large one, gave her the idea that we were asking for 
a subscription of some kind ; and like a {qw of her descendants, 
she was not willing to reply until she had given the matter 
careful attention. And, so long was she in thinking of it, 
that unless a few of her energetic daughters had taken the 
matter in hand, this two hundred and fiftieth birthday of 
our common mother would have passed without due ob- 
servance. May I not express to these daughters of Saybrook 
the thanks of all us the rest ? 

Now that we have come, with scanty time for preparation, 
to celebrate this anniversary, it must not be, as I w^as saying, 
with words of apology. We are doing as best we can a duty 
which has been laid upon us by one whom we have no right 
to disobey. But this at least may be said, that the history of 
Saybrook ought to be written out by some patient and skilful 
pen, read at some future day in your presence, and put in 
permanent form for the benefit of those who are to come 
after us. 

I am to carry you back in thoi^ght, as best I may, to the 
earliest times of that history, w^hen out of a sort of mythical 
haze we first see events shaping themselves into figures of 
real life, and then, if I can, to lead the way to what others, 
more competent and better qualified than myself, will bring 
before you as the important facts in the annals of our town. 

Save for the records of early combats with the natives and 
for the traces which we find, for the most part beneath the 
soil, of what they did in war and in peace, how they lived 
and how they were buried in some hope of immortality — 
save for such fragmentary records, w^e know next to nothing 
of those who occupied this plain, these meadows, and these 



lO Saybroo/cs Oitadrimitlcnial. 

hills before the eyes of enterprising Europeans saw the 
mouth of our fair and quiet river, and the hope of commerce 
and of resulting wealth led them to set a high value on the 
location of our town. And there is a very legendary air 
about the story of the attempted Dutch occupation, when the 
redoubtable settlers of the New Netherlands claimed for 
themselves the fields at the mouth of the river and the river 
itself. Doubtless, as in the case of the poetic legends in 
which the history of early Rome is enshrined, it will be 
possible for some gifted student to separate, in part at least, 
the true from the false, and to tell us the real story of Hans 
den Sluys. But we are not to-day Indians or Dutchmen; 
we are not dwellers in Pashbeshauke or in Kievets Hook ^ 
we will simply assume that it is true that our ancestors pur- 
chased their lands from the aboriginal inhabitants and that 
the States General had no jurisdiction within the limits which 
were covered by the deed or patent under which the English 
settlers took possession. Homer did not begin the history of 
the Trojan war by describing the Qg^ from which Helen was 
born* ; we begin the history of Say brook when it began to 
be Saybrook two hundred and fifty years ago. 

It was a troubled time in England, when a great revolution 
was coming to a head, and when, besides, the thoughts of a 
large body of men were turning eagerly and hopefully to the 
Virginia and the New England across the seas. Under the 
auspices of the Plymouth Company, settlements had been 
made in the Massachusetts ; and that company had trans- 
ferred to Robert, P^arl of Warwick, its rights to a tract of 
land a little further south; and under date of March 19th, 
163 1-2, the Earl of Warwick executed a deed or grant by 
which he conveyed to certain persons, "their heirs and as- 
signs and their associates forever," the said lands, forming the 
valley of the lower Connecticut, and described as extending 
from a river called Narragansett to the south sea. The 

*Nec gemino belliim Trojanum orditur ab ovo. — IIoracf, Ais Poetica, 147. 



The History of the Eai'Iy Settlement. i i 

grantees first mentioned in this Company are those whose 
names our town has perpetuated — the Right Honorable 
WiUiam, Viscount Say and Scale, and the Right Honorable 
Robert, Lord Brooke — the latter being, I suppose, the eldest 
son of the h^arl of Warwick ; and among those who were 
joined with them were the Right Honorable Lord Rich, also 
of the family of the Earl of Warwick, Sir Richard Saltonstall, 
John Pym, and John Plampden. There is no need to ask 
what were their political or their religious views ; it could 
probably be said of them all as we are told it was said of 
those whose names stood foremost, that when they were 
asked to pledge their fidelity to the King, one of them would 
not Say the words, the other would not Brook them. The 
document is called the old Patent of Connecticut, though on 
its face it is no more than a deed. As to its meaning and its 
value there may doubtless be questions ; certainly it was 
treated as if it were in some sense the patent of a govern- 
ment. On the 7th of July, 1635, J^li'^ Winthrop, Esq., the 
younger, son of the Governor of Massachusetts, was ap- 
pointed by the company who then held the title (and among 
them was then George Fenwick, Esquire) to be " governor 
of the river Connecticut, and of the harbor and places 
adjoining, for the space of one year after his arrival there " ; 
and Mr. Winthrop agreed to undertake the settlement, to 
build a fort within which should be houses for " men of 
quality", and to " reserve unto the fort, for the maintenance 
of it, one thousand or fifteen hundred acres, at least, of good 
ground, as near adjoining thereunto as may be." Winthrop 
arrived at Boston in October ; and, seeing the need of haste, 
he sent a vessel and twenty men to the mouth of the river, 
where there had already been the beginning of a settlement, 
and where they arrived just in time to frighten the Dutch 
from landing. It was on the 24th of November, 1635, 
almost two centuries and a half ago to a day, that the vessel 
reached here from Boston, and formal possession was taken 
in the name of Lord Say and Scale, Lord Brooke, and the 



1 2 Sayhroolcs QiiadriviillcniaL 

rest of the company who claimed the lands. Mr. Winthrop 
himself arrived a little later. 

With Mr. Winthrop (or perhaps earlier, for we are told it 
was on the 28th of November), came Lion Gardiner, an 
English engineer who had been in the service of the Prince 
of Orange, and who was employed to build the spacious 
fortifications which were proposed and to lay out a city. It 
was expected that in the next spring there would " come 
from England three hundred able men, whereof two hundred 
should attend fortification, fifty to till the ground, and fifty to 
build houses." Under the most favorable circumstances, 
little could have been done that winter except to provide for 
the safety and the most urgent needs of the colonists landed 
on Saybrook Point at the end of November, with no Euro- 
peans nearer than those in the settlements at Hartford, New 
York, and Massachusetts Bay. But this was an exceptionally 
hard winter. The Connecticut River was frozen over by the 
15th of November — nine days before the first settlers came 
here — and the snow was so deep to the north of us that the 
settlers of Hartford, who were coming by land from Cam- 
bridge, were exposed to great suffering, while the storms 
were so severe that a company who were attempting to reach 
Hartford by water were wrecked and wandered ten days 
before they met a human being. 

On the 3d or 4th of December the settlers at the fort had 
unexpected visitors. Seventy men, women, and children, in 
imminent danger of starvation, came from the settlements 
up the river, looking for the provisions which they were 
expecting from Boston. The vessels for which they looked 
did not come ; but the Rebecca, a vessel which had been 
frozen in below the narrows in the river, succeeded in work- 
ing her way out, and, taking them all on board, carried them 
back to Boston. Before she sailed, however, on the loth of 
December, 1635, she ran aground upon the bar, this being 
x:riie first record of a phenomenon with which we have become 
familiar. It seems that those who returned to Massachusetts 



The Hishny of the Early Settleuicnt. 1 3 

gave a dismal account of the state of things here; for the 
governor of that colony ordered a general fast to be observed 
on account of the peril of the garrison at the mouth of the -^ 
Connecticut. 

It was a relief, no doubt, when the winter had passed; but, 
to quote Mr. Gardiner's own words, the " great expectation 
at the river's mouth came only to two men, Mr. Fenwick 
and his man, who came [from Boston] with Mr. Hugh Peters 
and Mr. Oldham and Thomas Stanton." He was greatly 
disappointed; and in 1639 he removed to the island which 
bears his name — he called it the Isle of Wight — where he 
made the first English settlement within the limits of the 
present State of New York, His son David was born here 
on the 29th of April, 1636, being the first white child born 
in what is now Connecticut. 

The earliest instance of the use of the name Saybrook' 
which I have found is in the date of a letter written by Lion 
Gardiner to the younger Winthrop bearing date " Say- 
broock, 6 Nov. 1636"; in another letter dated the 23d day 
of the following January, the name is spelled Seabrooke. As 
the present names of Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor 
were not given till 1637, Saybrook is the oldest town-name 
in the State. 

Of the two other colonies which w^ere earjy established 
within the present limits of Connecticut, one was almost 
contemporaneous with that at Saybrook, and the other was 
somewhat later. There was the beginning of a settlement at 
Wethersfield in 1634, a settlement at Windsor in 1635, and 
later in that year the founders of Hartford brought their 
weary journey through the wilderness to an end. This colony 
— for it was really one, the three grape-vines united in one 
shield — antedated that at New Haven by some four years. It 
is doing no injustice to those who made these settlements to 
say that they were influenced by different and mingled 
motives. Political convictions, religious enthusiasm, and the 
hope of commercial success, all doubtless had nuich to do 



14 Saybroolcs Qiiadi'iinillcniaL 

with the settlements at Saybrook, at Hartford, and at New 
Haven, Yet, if one may make the distinction, it would seem 
that the political feeling was strongest in the colony to the 
north of us, that the religious motive was most prominent in 
that to the west, while here at the mouth of the river there 
were the strongest hopes of success in trade and commerce. 
The early appearance of the three settlements must also have 
been very different ; in fact, each has in its topography to- 
day the character stamped upon it by those who laid out the 
lands of which they took possession. Hartford was laid out 
along the line of a broad street, which served as the backbone 
of a future city, and where another principal street crossed 
it was the place of the meeting-house for both religious and 
political purposes. New Haven was laid out as a great square 
divided into nine squares, the centremost being reserved for 
the public buildings. Saybrook was first of all to have a ft)rt, 
or fortified place, including residences and other necessary 
buildings; and then evidently there was to be a large plot of 
land laid out after the manner of a city but so as to be 
dependent upon the fort at the river's mouth. The first fort 
stood further back from the water than that the remains of 
which were razed to the ground about fifteen years ago; and, 
a stockade being built across the narrow neck — then nar- 
rower than now — which divides the coves near the windmill 
lot, the whole of the point was easily defended from attacks 
by land. 

In the spring of 1 636, as has been already said, Mr. Fen- 
wick visited Saybrook, being the only one of the grantees or 
patentees who ever crossed the ocean. In the following 
summer or autumn he returned to England.* 

In 1636, before the garrison, now amounting to about 
twenty men, had been many months at the fort.^the Pequot 



*IIe probably establislied a system of tolls, or protective tariff, 011 goods 
carried by tlie fort up the river. Among the first shijjs to sail past were tlios? 
wliicli carried the goods of Mr. Pyiichon, the fomuler of Springfield. 



The liisiory of the Early Settlement. 1 5 

war broke out. The attaclc on tlie natives was not witliout 
provocation ; but it was unadvisedly and hastily undertaken, 
against the strong advice of Lieut. Gardiner, and it certainly 
seems to have been cruelly carried on at the last. The 
settlers at Saybrook were in great danger, and some were 
killed after they had been tortured by the savages. The war 
was ended in 1637. 

Meantime we hear of the arrival of other colonists, two of 
whom — Robert Chapman and John Clarke — are represented 
here to-day, while another — Capt. John Mason — made himself 
a name famous in the early history of the Commonwealth. 
After an absence of about three years, Mr. Fenwick returned 
in Jul}^, 1639, bringing with him his wife, Alice Apsley, 
formerly the wife of Sir John Botcler, from whom she had 
by courtesy the title of Lady. With them, or about the 
same time, came their chaplain, ALaster Thomas Higginson, 
who was afterwards pastor at Guilford and at Salem, Mass. 
No church, however, was organized as yet in Saybroolc ; 
Lady Fenwick was admitted a member of the church in 
Hartford, and her daughter Elizabeth, born not long after 
her arrival here, was thereupon baptized. 

Air. Fenwick, as the only one of the patentees in the 
colony, acted, it would seem, as ex officio Governor. \\\ the 
midst of many discouragements, he cared for the interests of 
the little settlement and of the other patentees; and he also 
united with the representatives of the other colonies in 
what are now the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut, 
in forming the confederation of the United Colonies of New 
England. 

The independence of our colony lasted about ten years. 
In December, 1644, a" agreement was made between Mr. 
Fenwick and the General Court at Hartford, by which the 
former ceded to the other government the fort at Saybrook,* 

*Whatever ihe value of this cession or grant at llic time, its intention and 
effect were ratified by the charter of 1660. 



y 



l6 Say brook'' s Onadrimincnial. 

and in the following spring he was elected a magistrate of 
the Connecticut colony. His wife died, probably in 1646, 
soon after the birth of her daughter Dorothy ; and then, dis- 
appointed and discouraged, and thinking that, if the purposes 
of the colony were to be carried out, there was need of some 
further efforts in England, he sailed back across the ocean. 
There he became a colonel in the Parliamentary army, and 
was elected a member of Cromwell's Parliament, though 
excluded from his seat because he was not satisfactory to 
the Protector. He died in 1657. 

The death of Lady Fenwick is the romantic event in the 
history of our town. For long years there was something 
touching in the sight of the massive tombstone standing 
alone in the field on the spot where the first settlers had 
lived, as there was something pathetic in the story of which 
it reminded the passer-by ; and the reverent care with 
which, when her dust was threatened with disturbance by 
ruthless hands, it was laid near the graves of seven genera- 
tions of those who came after her, bears witness that she will 
not be soon forgotten. 

" And ever this wave-washed shore 

Shall be linked with her tomb and fame, 
And blend with the wind and the billowy roar, 
The music of her name."* 

In 1647 the first fort, within the enclosure of which Lady 
Fenwick was buried, was destroyed by fire; and in the fol- 
lowing year the new fort was built close to the river's brink. 
Many of us remember the earthwork, far older than anything 
else of the same kind in the northern part of the United 
States, which formed so picturesque a feature of the scenery 
until it had to give way to structures which may be more 
useful but certainly are less attractive. 

It was this second fort, the surrender of which w^as de- 

*From a poem liy Miss F. M. Caulkins. 



The History of the Early Settlement. i 7 

nianded by Major Andross on the 8th of July, 1675, when 
4 Captain Robert Chapman and ^Captain Bull of Hartford so 
ingeniously defended the rights of the colony ; for Major 
Andross did not venture to fire upon the royal standard, and 
either did not dare to read his commission or could not make 
it heard. 

l)ut before this time Saybrook had sent out a colony to 
settle in the eastern part of the State, where two beautiful 
rivers, uniting to form the Thames, offer a site for a city than 
which it is not easy to imagine one more attractive. The 
outgoing colony was led by the Rev. James Fitch, who had 
succeeded tlie Rev. Thomas Peters in the pastorate of the 
church at Saybrook. With him he took a larger part of his 
people, attracted, we are told, by the report of the fair tract 
of nine miles square which the faithful Uncas had granted 
them in remembrance of the kindness of a Saybrook man 
who had relieved his people when hard pressed by siege and 
hunger. Thus many names which occur in the early records 
of Saybrook are lost from its history and appear in the annals 
of Norwich, its oldest and fairest daughter. 

After a few years Mr. Fitch was succeeded here by the 
Rev. Thomas Buckingham, whose pastorate extended into 
the eighteenth century and covered the important period 
marked by the foundation of the Collegiate School and the 
meeting of the assembly which drew up the Saybrook Plat-^ 
form. 

It is not easy for us to draw a picture of Saybrook at the 
close of the century, after sixty-five years of its history had 
passed. The town had spread beyond the limits of the 
stockade which had protected the first settlement from 
attacks by land. A road doubtless led along the coast — it 
was the old post-road to New Haven; and houses were built 
on this road, not only on this side of Oyster River, but also 
beyond it. As early as 1660 there were settlers in Pochaug, 
afterwards called West Saybrook and Westbrook. Another 
road must have led to the north, branchin": off on the right 



iS Saybi'ooJcs Oiiadrimilteniat. 

to the ferrying-place and on the left, skirting the great 
swamp and passing through the northern part of the town 
to Haddam and thence to Hartford. The burying-ground 
had been early laid out at the foot of the present cemeteryT 
I am inclined to doubt whether it was ever an Indian burial- 
place. In front of it ran the road from the fort, past the 
house and lot which were afterwards given by Mr. Nathanief 
Lynde for the use of the college ; and another road, also still 
in use, completed the circuit of the Point. On the cross- 
road, not far from the site of the present school-house, 
stood the meeting-house, finished in 1680 or 1681, the 
second edifice erected for the worship of God. Two other 
streets ran across this from north to south, dividing the land 
into six city-like plots. The houses were not inhabited by 
the "persons of quality " who had been expected from Eng- 
land or by their descendants; but a census taken at that time 
would have contained many names which are represented in 
this village and in other parts of the old town to-day; a few 
of them we can find on the roll of civil dignitaries. The 
town had had its own governor for a few years; but it 
had furnished no governor for the colony of Connecticut 
after it became merged in its jurisdiction. To the House of 
" Assistants," the upper house of the General Assembly, 
elected by general vote, it had sent only George Fenwick 
(1644-1649) and Robert Chapman (1681-1685); the repre- 
sentatives elected for the town had borne the names of 
vChapman, Bjjshnell, Pratt, Parker, Lay, Dudley, Post, Lynde, 
Clark, and Whittlesey. When in 1704 the General Assem- 
bly, for the sake of confirming the title to the real estate 
within the town, granted a formal charter of incorporation, 
the document contained the names of Buckingham, Chap- 1 
man, Pratt, Clark, Parker, Lay, and Sandford. We have the 
names of but three Town Clerks before 1700 — Messrs. Tully, 
Willard, and Pratt. To the north of the settlement lay the 
common fields — that most interesting " survival " of an 
ancient custom in regard to the tenure of land, for the lay- 



The History of the Early Sctlleuient. 1 9 

out and division of which provision was made by the town 
within fifteen years after its first settlement. There must have 
been aheady a settlement in Pettipaug at what we call 
Centre Brook, and probably one at Pattaconk or Chester. 
But nearly a quarter of a century was to pass before a second 
ecclesiastical society should be organized, and nearly a century 
and a half before the ancient town should be cut into pieces. 
The country across the river had been for a short time called 
East Saybrook, but its connection with the civil or eccles- 
iastical administration of the town can have been hardly 
more than nominal. 

It does not fall to my lot to dwell upon the important 
events in the later history of the town. One best qualified 
to do so will speak of the early annals of the Collegiate 
School, in regard to which we affirm most emphatically that in 
Saybrook and in Saybrook alone was its legal home and the 
place where its degrees were conferred until it was removed 
to New Haven, where under an honored name it has been 
for many years, and will be, we trust, for many more, the 
home of sound learning under the always recognized guid- 
ance of Christian principle. I may note, however, that of the 
fifty-five who received their first degree here, ten were young 
men of Saybrook, bearing the names of Whittlesey, Chapman, 
Lynde, Taylor, Tousey, Blague, Buckingham, Clarke, Lord, 
and Willard. The history and significance of the important I 
Synod of 1708 will be described by one who can tell us of I 
the influence of the Saybrook Platform in moulding the 
ecclesiastical constitution of the Standing Order — the Estab- 
lished Ch.urch — of this Commonwealth, and how its influence 
has extended beyond our own borders. 

The later history of the ecclesiastical organization within the 
town will not, I trust, be passed by; when under the guid- 
ance of Mr. Buckingham, and after him, of Mr. Mather and 
Mr. Hart and Mr. Hotchkiss — the pastorates of these three 
men extending over a hundred and thirty-four years — the 
people of Saybrook were instructed in the faith and fear of 



20 SaybrooJSs QiiadriniillcniaL 

God. Nor ought we to forget the growth of settlements in 
parts of the town remote from the site of the ancient fort, 
and the progress of all in trade and commerce, in agriculture 
and fisheries, and their advance in education and religion. 
And, turning from the pleasant thoughts of quiet rural life 
and of successful labors on land and sea, we ought not to 
forget what Saybrook men have done for the defence of their 
country in the times of her need ; we may be proud to 
remember that a Saybrook captain was with Washington at 
Valley Forge, and that he kept his soldiers shod by selling 
his land here at home, even if we are ashamed at having to 
confess that he received on earth no reward for his self- 
denial. 

But it is for me to do no more than point out the way in 
wjiich we may study the history of our ancient town, to 
preface what others will say at length, and to point out a 
part of what we may expect when our history shall be fully. 
and carefully written. 

" Saybrook," said "A Gentleman of the Province," writing 
the history of Connecticut in 1781, "is greatly fallen from its 
ancient grandeur; but is, notwithstanding, resorted to with 
great veneration, as the parent town of the whole colony." 
If we lost our grandeur in the first hundred and fifty years, 
I am afraid that a part at least of the veneration has been 
lost in the century which has passed since Dr. Peters wrote. 
But we at least, who have known Saybrook best, have never 
failed to hold her in reverence, to recognize how much we 
owe to her, and to pray in the devout words of the great 
king, who looked back from the splendor of the newly estab- 
lished kingdom and the newly finished temple to see in the 
earlier history of Israel the pattern on which he would have 
its later history framed : "The Lord our God be with us, 
as He was with our fathers," 



Yale College at Sayl>rook. 2 i 

The Chairman then introduced the Rev. Noah Porter, 
D. J^., LT>. D., President of Yale College, New Haven, who 
spoke of the history of 

"YALE COLLEGE AT SAYBROOK." 

The story of Yale College is one that is not very agreeable 
to the niinds of the natives of Saybrook and their descend- 
ants, and for that reason I shall be excused if I make the 
recital of it brief. The story, as I shall give it, I have gathered 
rather than gleaned from the complete history of the first 
half century or forty-five years of the life of Yale College, by 
my associate, Professor Dexter, who is here on hand to cor- 
rect me if I shall make any mistakes. I say I have gathered 
rather than gleaned what I shall tell you, for he has told the 
story so fully that there is nothing left to glean after him. I 
hope I shall make no mistakes. What I shall present is 
simply a little bouquet culled from the abundant sheaf which 
you will find in what he has wiitten of the first half century 
of the life of Yale College. 

The founding of Yale College was not an afterthought to 
the original colonists, since it may be traced back with a 
certain degree of confidence to the leaders of the New Haven 
colony, among whom John Davenport was conspicuous; and 
probably we may, without any mistake, aver that the founda- 
tion of the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven, which 
is nearly if not quite the first endowed school of the sort in 
New England, was designed to be preparatory to the founda- 
tion of another institution of a higher character. It is true 
in fact that a little before the beginning of the last century 
there was a movement in Connecticut toward the establish- 
ment of a college, in which were conspicuous five clerg)-- 
men whose parishes were all on the coast from New Haven 
to Stratford. These clergymen counselled freely with certain 
Massachusetts gentlemen, probably for the purpose of as- 
certaining what was the best method to secure a trustworthy 



2 2 SaybrooJS s Ouadrimilleiiial. 

act of incorporation or organization. Very soon after, as we 
know, there was a meeting of seven clergymen, as it is 
supposed, in Branford, each of whom, as the tradition goes 
and we trust the tradition in this case, made a gift of books, 
saying: "With tliese books I lay the foundation of a college 
in this colony." By their deed of gift these persons invested 
something in the enterprise, and thereby qualified themselves 
to appear as petitioners for the assurance of certain corpor- 
ate rights. In response to their petition a charter was 
obtained, sometimes called the old charter of Yale College, 
and on the iith of November, 1701, seven of the trustees 
who were constituted by this act a corporate body, met at 
Saybrook, and, as I was informed by my mentor. Professor 
Dexter, on the cars this morning, the organization of Yale 
College took place at Saybrook one hundred and eighty-four 
}ears ago, the 22d of this month. It appears, therefore, that 
you came very near celebrating the founding of Yale College 
by the celebration which you are now enacting in the ancient 
town of Saybrook. The fact cannot be questioned that 
Yale College was founded under its charter in Saybrook one 
hundred and eighty-four years ago. You can make as little 
or as much of this as you choose. Saybrook is not only the 
place in which Yale College has spent sixteen years of its ex- 
istence, but it is the place where it began its corporate life. 

Now, why was Sajbrook selected ? That is a question 
which comes home to the heart of every descendant. Why 
was Saybrook selected as the place for the organization of this 
institution and for the beginning of its operations ? Of course 
I am trying to tell an honest story. I cannot say with truth 
that it was because Saybrook was a fortified city at the 
mouth of the Connecticut. I think it was in part accidental, 
and can be, perhaps, more or less satisfactorily explained. In 
tlie first place, you may say that it may be supposed that 
possibly the pastor of the church in Saybrook may have had 
some influence in locating the college here. Perhaps it was 
because the place was thought very Ccisy of access, by the 



Va/e College at Say brook. 23 

river from the north and by the shore from the east and the 
west. Perhaps it was owing to the fact that the future rector 
had probably been fixed on, who Hved very near to this 
place, since the trustees would hardly have dared to appoint 
the place of meeting at Killingworlh or Kenilworth, now 
Clinton, if they had fixed their e)-es ujion Dr. Pierson as the 
first rector. It may be, also, that some who were active behind 
the scenes thought that it would not do to designate New 
Haven as the place, lest they might awaken the somewhat 
sensitive feelings of the people at Wethersficld or Hartford. 
As between the claims of all these rivals, it is not surprising 
that Saybrook was selected and the college was located, for 
the time at least, under the shadow of your fort, and possibly 
as its permanent abiding-place. At all events we know that, 
having a rector in their minds who resided in a neighboring 
parish, the trustees encamped in Saybrook waiting for future 
developments — and here the institution began. It deserves 
to be remembered in honor of Mr. Nathaniel Lynde, that he 
gave a lot for the use of the institution as long as it should 
remain in Saybrook ; and the lot was used till the institution 
left the town, and then it very properly reverted to its 
donor. 

The first commencement was held here in 1702. Though 
the college as yet had no pupils or actual students, they lield 
session for conferring degrees, and they gave degrees to five 
persons who were previously graduates of Harvard College. 
Keep in mind, if you please, that the institution commenced 
its operations by giving degrees, and this function seems to 
have been recognized as of considerable importance. The 
institution was operated somewhat after the fashion of the 
universities of the old country, as examining bodies, bodies 
qualified to confer degrees. Whatever the fact might signify, 
the fact is unquestioned that degrees were given to these 
five persons in 1702. In 1703 the first graduate who was 
instructed here received the honors of the institution, and at 
the same time Mr. Daniel Hooker, a son of Rev. Samuel 



24 SaybrooJS s Qitadriinillcnial. 

Hooker at Farmington, was appointed tutor; with him the 
work of instruction began. I have had the satisfaction of 
discovering that the first tutor of Yale in Saybrook, and 
Yale's first graduate student were from my native town. The 
name of the student was John Hart, and he came here at the 
beginning of what we call the junior year and graduated In 
1703, so that the first instructor and the first graduate came 
from Farmington. This Rev. John Hart was afterwards 
settled in East Guilford, and filled an honorable pastorate 
there, dying among his people. 

I have spoken of the significance of Rector Pierson's resi- 
dence in Kilhngvvorth in determining Saybrook as th.e first 
site of the institution. Let me observe, however, that at the 
meeting respecting the location, the first vote which they 
passed on the subject was this : " That the college should 
be no further east than Saybrook, nor further west than 
New Haven." From which it appears that from the begin- 
ning the trustees did not commit themselves to Saybrook as 
the final resting-place of the college. 

Rector Pierson must have been a man of great force of 
character and of an ardent temper. He was inaugurated 
as rector here, but he never resided in Saybrook ; although 
a house-lot was provided for his occupation, the house 
was never built. He gave instruction only to the members 
of the senior class in his own parish, the rest of the in- 
struction being given by tutors in Saybrook. His people, 
as you may imagine, were all the while in a state of dis- 
comfort, being disturbed by the claims of the college and of 
the Saybrook community, lest they should lose him sooner 
or later. For that reason alone the interests of the institution 
must have suffered till his death, in 1707. He was an ardent 
student, who had mastered the physics of his day, such as 
they were, and the system of philosophy which he imparted, 
as we find it in a manuscript volume now in existence, 
marks somewhat definitely the transition period from the 
old-fashioned physics of Descartes to the physics of Boyle 



Yale College a I Say brook. 25 

and of Newton. For very many reasons he was a man 
who deserves to be honored in the memory of all the loyal 
sons of Yale. 

Probably the course of study which was followed in the 
institution would compare very favorably with the course of 
instruction which is adopted at present in the secondary in- 
stitutions of this country. The students recited in Virgil and 
Cicero and the Greek Testament, very superficially doubtless. 
They were also drilled in scholastic logic, and were un- 
doubtedly held diligently to their work. We ought not to 
estimate the value of the education which they received by 
the text-books which they studied, but by the mental effort 
which they bestowed upon them. It is not the breadth of 
the field, but the thoroughness with which it is covered, 
that is important. We have no reason to suppose that the 
early students of Yale were either idle or superficial. 

As we pass on to 17 10, Elihu Yale appears on the scene, 
a native of New Haven, subsequently president of the since 
famous East India Company, who retired to Wrexham in 
Wales, where he died very rich. 

Not long after, in the year 17 14, very considerable contri- 
butions of books were received at one time and deposited in 
Saybrook — seven hundred volumes contributed by eminent 
writers, philosophers, and others in England, collected by the 
zeal and assiduity of Mr. Jeremiah Dummer, agent of the 
colony in England. 

In 1 716 the last commencement was held at Saybrook, 
and it happened in this way. Undoubtedly the older men 
of the board of trustees had been considering the question, 
whether it were not wise to remove the institution westward. 
As a first step they went so far as to vote, five to two, that 
if the institution were to be removed at all it should go 
to New Haven. It was also determined that before the 
question should be decided whether the institution was to 
be removed or not, it would be convenient to know which 
of the three places named would raise the largest sum of 



26 Saybrook's Qtiadrhnillcmal. 

money. The people in Saybrook raised ;^ 1,400, the people 
of New Haven ;^2,ooo, while the wealthy city of Hartford 
raised nothing to speak of; either relying upon some other 
instrumentality as the means of securing the college, or 
giving the whole matter up in despair. An adjourned meet- 
ing of the trustees was held in New Haven, October 17, to 
decide this question, and, to their credit, they discussed the 
question for a week although they were seven in number. 
Arguments were urged on both sides. The reasons urged for 
removing to New Haven were, that taking into account the 
population to the west in what were then called the govern- 
ments of New Jersey and New York, New Haven was more 
central and would attract more students; and again that New 
Haven would give the most money and would zealously 
support the college. No other reasons than these were given 
and no other reasons appear on the page of history. After 
the deliberation of seven days it was decided finally, five to 
two, that the college should go to New Haven, the two dis- 
sentients being residents of Hartford and Wethersfield. Then 
ensued a two years' succession of movements and counter- 
movements in order to secure it elsewhere ; but the trustees 
held fast to their original decision. The question was decided 
in fact by holding a Commencement at New Haven, and by 
the general acquiescence of the public mind, and above all by 
a small appropriation of money from the State. This was fol-' 
lowed by the procedure of the trustees to erect a building, 
which it was rightly reasoned would tend to fix the institution 
in its place. So it came to New Haven and there it has 
remained. 

Let me say, however, that after this decision was reached, 
for two or three years a large number of its students were 
instructed in other parts of the State — in Wethersfield, in 
Hartford, and in Saybrook ; even after the institution had 
been fixed in New Haven by the vote of the trustees, more 
than half the students were instructed elsewhere and came to 
New Haven only to receive their degrees. So stiff were our 



The Say brook Platform. 27 

fathers for local rights, so tenacious were they of every ex- 
pedient by which they could promote their individual or 
their local interests. 

This is the history of Yale College in Saybrook. It may 
be said, to the honor of Saybrook, that the institution had 
acquired some fixed habits of life under the fostering care of 
its early nurse, and also that it will ever be remembered that 
it was the seed-plot for what has now become a great 
tree, in the shadow of whose branches the nations rejoice. 
Whatever there may have been in the way of uncomfortable 
associations in connection with this history, I have endeavored 
to dispel by reciting the plain story of its removal. As our 
fathers would have said, there were manifest indications of 
Divine Providence that it was better for the institution that 
its site should be changed. On the other hand, never should 
the college forget, never should its friends cease to remem- 
ber, that this pleasant village was the seed-place and the 
nursery-house in which this noble tree struck its first roots 
and began its glorious growth. 

The Rev. Lewellyn Pratt, D. D., Professor in the 
Hartford Theological Seminary, a native of the old town of 
Saybrook, then made an address on 

"THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM." 

My task to-day is to give the story of the Saybrook Plat- 
form. I shall not attempt to enter into an extended discussion 
of its merits as a Congregational document — this is not the 
time or place for that. I shall aim simply to make clear 
what the Saybrook Platform was. 

Saybrook seems to have been in early times a kind of 
ecclesiastical centre for Connecticut; probably because it 
was more easy of access than other places, possibly because 
of the rivalry between Hartford and New Haven, and then 
later because it was the seat of the college. 

In 1668 the Legislature passed an act authorizing four 



28 Say brook's Qtiadrimillemal. 

distinguished ministers — the Revs. James Fitch of Norwich, 
Gershom Bulkley of Wethersfield, Jared EHot of Guilford, 
and Samuel Wakeman of Fairfield — one from each county of 
the Colony, to meet at Saybrook, and devise some general 
plan of church government and discipline under which the 
churches of Connecticut might be united. 

Again, in 1703, in response to a circular issued by the 
trustees of the College, the churches and their ministers were 
convened, and gave their consent to the Westminister and 
Savoy Confessions and drew up certain rules of ecclesiastical 
union in discipline. It seems probable that this body met 
at Saybrook, the seat of the College. So the council that 
framed the Saybrook Platform was, perhaps, the third con- 
vocation at Saybrook for devising an ecclesiastical code for 
Connecticut. 

That council met in this place one hundred and seventy- 
seven years ago; that is, in 1708, on the 9th, or in our 
reckoning, on the 20th day of September. It was composed 
of sixteen members, twelve ministers and four lay delegates. 
They came together at the time of the Commencement of 
the Collegiate School, since known as Yale College ; eight or 
nine of the members being at the time trustees of the 
College. 

The members of the Council were : — 

From Hartford County: Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, 
pastor of the first church, Hartford ; Rev. Noadiah Russell, 
pastor of the first church, Middletown ; Rev. Stephen Mix, 
pastor of the church in Wethersfield, and messenger, John 
Haynes of Hartford. 

From Fairfield County : Rev. Charles Chauncey, pastor 
of the Stratfield church, now the first church, Bridgeport ; 
Rev. John Davenport, pastor of the church in Stamford, and 
messenger, Deacon Samuel Hart of Stamford. 

From New London County : Rev. James Noyes, pastor 
of the first church, Stonington ; Rev. Thomas Buckingham, 
pastor of the first church, Saybrook ; Rev. Moses Noyes, 



The Say brook Platform. 2C) 

pastor of the first church, Lyme; Rev. John Woodward, 
pastor of the first church, Norwich, and messengers, Robert 
Chapman of Saybrook, and Deacon William Parker. 

From New Haven County : Rev. Samuel Andrew, pastor 
of the church in Miiford ; Rev. James Pierpont, pastor of the 
first church. New Haven ; Rev. Samuel Russell, pastor of 
the church in Branford. 

It would be interesting to dwell upon the characteristics of 
some of these men, who met here for the purpose of defining 
the government of the Colony religiously. The moderators 
were: (i) James Noyes of Stonington, a venerated father, 
then in his 69th year, an alumnus of Harvard College, and 
son of one of the distinguished men of Massachusetts ; and 
(2) Thomas Buckingham of Saybrook, first pastor of the 
revived church after the removal of the major part to Nor- 
wich with the former pastor, Mr. Fitch. Of minister Buck- 
ingham we shall hear from a worthy descendant to-day. 

Samuel Andrew, the member from Miiford, was then 
acting rector or president of the college. 

There was also Timothy Woodbridge of Hartford, one of 
the original " trustees or undertakers," appointed by the 
Legislature "to found, erect and govern the college," one 
who strove most vigorously against the removal of the 
college to New Haven, the same Mr. Woodbridge whom 
President Clap sarcastically describes as presiding over 
"something like a Commencement" at Wethersfield in 1718. 

There was James Pierpont of New Haven, to whom the 
original draft of the Platform is attributed, \vhose public 
spirit and eminent gifts had made him conspicuous in the 
Colony. It was out of his consultations with his two next 
neighbors in the ministry — Andrew of Miiford and Russell 
of Branford — that the movement came which resulted in the 
founding of the college. His daughter was the wife of the 
great theologian Jonathan Edwards, and among his descend- 
ants are to be found the younger President Edwards, Presi- 
dent Dwight, President Woolsey, 



30 . Saybrook's Quadrimillenial. 

The Charles Chauncey of Stratfield was grandson of 
President Chauncey of Harvard College. John Davenport of 
Stamford was grandson of the John Davenport, first pastor in 
New Haven; and among the lay delegates were John Haynes 
of Hartford, who was son of the second pastor in Hart- 
ford and grandson of the first Governor of Hartford Colony, 
himself prominent in civil life as judge and "assistant" in the 
Connecticut Colony ; and another layman, Robert Chapman 
of Saybrook, who for many years represented this town in 
the Legislature and whose descendants are with us to-day. 

These men were "picked men," worthy as any then living 
in the Colony, to represent the churches and the State in 
council. 

We are to imagine these men, most of them, as coming 
long journeys, with solemn purpose intent, not as we have 
come, by easy transport on the Shore Line or Connecticut 
Valley railroads, not even in carriages — for it was not till 
after the middle of that century that wheeled vehicles were 
used — but on horseback through the wilderness, some of 
them requiring two days at least for the journey. They 
probably met in the house of Mr. Buckingham, or, possibly, 
in the house given to the college by Nathaniel Lynde, the 
deed of which (although the offer of the house was made 
six years before) was executed on the very day the council 
met, September 9th, 1708. 

There were at that time forty-one Congregational churches 
— counting the one at Rye — in the four counties of Connec- 
ticut Colony. There were no other churches in the Colony 
but these, except one Baptist church in Groton, and one 
Episcopal church in Stratford, both formed the year before. 
The first Presbyterian church in the State was formed in 
1723, and the first Methodist church not till 1789. 

These men then were the representatives practically of all 
the churches of the Colony. It was natural that it should be 
arranged that they should meet at the time of the College 
Commencement, for the trustees of the College were all 



The Saybrook Platform. 3 r 

ministers, and were the only body of ministers of the scat- 
tered churches that were brought together statedly by public 
duties. These men had been regularly chosen by county 
conventions of the churches held in June of that year ; so 
that, as Dr. G. L. Walker puts it in the "History of the First 
Church of Hartford," " there seems no valid reason for the 
suggestion, which has been made, that the body convened at 
Saybrook in September, 1708, was not a perfectly fair and 
fully representative body of the forty-one churches of Con- 
necticut." 

This Council of sixteen members was convened by an order 
from the General Court or Legislature of the Colony. Such 
an order was in accordance with the ideas then prevalent 
and with all the precedents of New England. 

That order, adopted at the May session of the Legislature 
in 1708, read : "This Assembly, from their own observation 
and the complaint of many others, being made sensible of 
the defects of discipline in the churches of this government, 
arising from the want of more explicit asserting of the rules 
given for that end in the Holy Scriptures, from which would 
arise a permanent establishment among ourselves, a good 
and regular issue in cases subject to ecclesiastical discipline, 
glory to Christ our Head, and edification to his members, 
hath seen fit to ordain and require, and it is by the authority 
of the same ordained and required, that the ministers of the 
several counties in this government shall meet together, at 
their respective county towns, with such messengers as the 
churches to which they belong shall see cause to send with 
them, on the last Monday in June next, there to consider 
and agree upon those methods and rules for the management 
of ecclesiastical discipline, which by them shall be judged 
agreeable and conformable to the word of God, and shall, at 
the same meeting, appoint two or more of their number to 
be their delegates, who shall all meet together at Saybrook 
at the next commencement to be held there, where they 
shall compare the results of the ministers of the several 



32 Say brook's Quadrimillcnial. 

counties, and of and from them to draw a form of ecclesias- 
tical discipline, which by two or more persons delegated by 
them, shall be offered to this Court, at their session at New 
Haven in October next, to be considered of and affirmed by 
them ; and the expense of the above mentioned meetings 
shall be defrayed out of the public treasury of this Colony." 

The Legislature thus both convened the Synod or Council 
and prescribed its duties. 

No record has come down to us giving account of the 
number of days spent in consultation or the details of the 
discussions ; we know the result from the report that was 
made to the Legislature. That embraced a " Confession of 
Faith," "Heads of Agreement," and "Articles for Adminis- 
tration of Church Discipline." 

In order to understand the result of this Council — the 
Saybrook Platform — it should be borne in mind that this 
Council was not called to settle doctrinal points; and that in 
point of doctrine the Saybrook Council did nothing but re- 
affirm previous standards. The churches of New England 
were at one with each other and with the Reformed churches 
of Europe on matters of doctrine. It is necessary to bear 
this in mind because the Saybrook Platform is referred to as 
though it enunciated some frightful statements of doctrine 
peculiar to itself It did nothing of the kind. 

The Articles of faith of the Protestant churches of Europe 
were acceptable to and accepted by our forefathers in this 
country. They did not object to the Thirty-nine Articles of 
the Church of England, except to those of a political charac- 
ter or to those bearing upon church government. It is a 
fact of history that Archbishop Cranmer, who was the lead- 
ing spirit in framing the Thirty-nine Articles in the reign of 
Edward VI., had the grand idea of framing an evangelical, 
catholic creed, in which all the Reformed churches could 
agree, in opposition to the Church of Rome then holding the 
Council of Trent, and that he invited the surviving continen- 
tal reformers, Melancthon, Calvin, and Bullinger, to London 



The Say brook Platform . 33 

for that purpose. Calvin replied that he "was willing to cross 
ten seas for such a work of Christian union." Political events 
however prevented the conference, and Cranmer with Ridley 
and Latimer, and a few who came from foreign lands, framed 
the forty-two Articles, which were afterwards reduced to 
thirty- nine, and published in English in 1571. 

The Westminster Confession of Faith, which afterwards 
became the standard among Presbyterians and Congrcga- 
tionalists, was completed in 1646. 

In 1648 this was adopted unanimously by the Council, in 
which were representatives from the Connecticut and New 
Haven Colonies, that met at Cambridge, Mass., as "very 
holy, orthodox, and judicious in all matters of faith, and we 
do therefore freely and fully consent thereunto for substance 
thereof, only in those things which have respect unto church 
government and discipline we refer ourselves to the platform 
agreed upon by the present assembly." 

This Westminster Confession was afterwards modified in 
matters pertaining to church government at the Council of 
elders and messengers of the Congregational churches in 
England held at the Savoy Palace in London in 1658. 

The General Council of elders and messengers of the 
churches in New England held in Boston, in which were 
representatives from Connecticut, in 1680, approved of and 
consented to this amended form of the Westminster Con- 
fession. 

The Confession of Faith, then, that was approved at Say- 
brook, was that which was affirmed at Cambridge in 1648 
and at Boston in 1680, being the Westminster as modified 
at the Savoy. The compilers at Saybrook did not alter this 
Savoy Confession at all, but simply subjoined to each section 
proof- texts from the Scriptures. That the Saybrook Council 
regarded the three Confessions — that of the Church of Eng- 
land, the Westminster, and the Savoy — as meaning essen- 
tially the same thing, so far as doctrines are concerned, and 
as being in agreement with the Word of God, appears from 



34 SaybrooJis Qjtadrimillcnial. 

this statement which they made in the eighth head of the 
articles of agreement, which says : " As to what appertains 
to soundness of judgment in matters of faith, we esteem it 
sufficient that a church acknowledge the Scriptures to be the 
Word of God, the perfect and only rule of faith and practise, 
and we own either the doctrinal part of those commonly 
called the Articles of the Church of England, or the Confes- 
sion or Catechisms, shorter or larger, compiled by the 
Assembly at Westminster, or the Confession agreed on at 
the Savoy, to be agreeable to said rule," 

That is, their doctrinal basis was in harmony with that of 
the Reformed churches of England and the Continent. In 
this part of their deliverance, then, we find no condemning 
feature of the Saybrook Platform. 

The second part of the result reported to the Legislature 
consisted of the " Heads of Agreement " and " Articles for 
the Administration of Discipline ; " the latter — the Fifteen 
Articles — constitute what was peculiar to the Saybrook Plat- 
form, all bearing upon church government. The Puritans in 
the old country and in this were not at first as fully settled 
and agreed upon church government and discipline as upon 
doctrines; and in this fact there is nothing surprising. Doc- 
trines are more clearly and fully revealed in Scriptures than 
matters pertaining to government, and the latter were sub- 
jects of much controversy when New England was settled. 

There were difTerences of opinion among the Puritans of 
England and of New England upon matters of church 
government. Some were Presbyterians and some Inde- 
pendents in England; in New England they tried to take 
the middle ground between Presbyterianism and Indepen- 
dency. This is what was sought in the Cambridge Platform 
and in the councils held from time to time during that 
century; and it was to remedy what defects had been found 
in the working of the systems that had been previously 
wrought out that the Saybrook Council was called. The 
" Heads of Agreement," so called, were the same that had 



•, TJie Say brook Platform, 35 

been agreed upon in 1691 by the Presbyterian and Congre- 
gational ministers in England. These have, for the most 
part, to do with the power of particular churches in the 
management of discipline among themselves. They refer 
also to the relations of such churches to each other and to 
their communion, and were decidedly Congregational. 

Thus far then we have not come to the specific and pecu- 
liar work of the Saybrook Platform. The Confession of Faith, 
as we have seen, was meant to be in accordance with the 
Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, and was that 
which had been adopted at Westminster and modified at 
the Savoy. The Heads of Agreement was those agreed 
upon by the Presbyterians and Congregationalists in Eng- 
land in 1 69 1 for the sake of unity and peace. 

We say that there was nothing distinctive in the positions 
taken upon these points. We may, perhaps, make this ex- 
ception, that the language used in the report of the Saybrook 
Council, with reference to the " Confession " and " Heads of 
Agreement," was more mandatory and authoritative than was 
called for from representatives of the Congregational churches. 
The Confession had been the doctrinal belief of the churches, 
and there was no need for them to recommend that it be 
declared by the Legislature that this be the doctrinal basis, 
or to agree that the Heads of Agreement "be observed" by 
the churches of the Colony. 

We come now to the Saybrook Platform proper — the fif- 
teen Articles for the Administration of Discipline. Now we 
reach what, in the minds of some, have been regarded almost 
as the equivalent of the so-called Blue-Laws of Connecticut. 
This was the Saybrook Synod's own peculiar work. 

These articles of discipline were compiled at Saybrook 
from the four models prepared in the county conventions. 
President Stiles of Yale College observes : " I have been 
told that the model from New Haven county, said to have 
been draughted piincipally by the Rev. Mr. James Pierpont, 



36 SaybrooJSs Quadrimilleiiial. 

was that which, with some amendments, passed the Synod." 
These provided for one or more consociations of churches 
in each county, which should be the regular, known, and re- 
sponsible tribunals with appellate and final jurisdiction ; to 
which particular churches might refer cases too difficult to be 
well adjudged and issued by them — cases concerning which 
there should " be need of a council for the determination of 
them" ; and to which aggrieved individuals in the churches 
might apply for redress. "One principal thing," says Presi- 
dent Clap, " wherein these articles differed from what had 
been before generally received and practised in the New 
England churches was this : that whereas the Cambridge 
Platform had said in general terms, that councils should 
consist of neighboring churches, and some question had 
arisen who should be esteemed neighboring churches, and 
what number should be called in particular cases ; these 
articles reduced it to a greater certainty, that councils should 
consist of neighboring churches of the county, they forming 
themselves into one or more consociations for the purpose." 
The object was to prevent picked councils, ex parte councils, 
and councils upon councils, which might give contradictory 
results, and plunge the churches into endless troubles. 

The articles provided also for associations in each county, 
consisting of the teaching elders or ministers of that county, 
who should meet at least twice in the year, consult together 
with regard to the duties of their office and the common 
interest of the churches, have the power of examining and 
recommending the candidates for the ministry, take notice of 
any of their number accused of scandal or heresy, and if they 
find occasion should direct the calling of the council or conso- 
ciation to proceed against such offending ministers. The as- 
sociations also were to be consulted by "bereaved churches" 
— those without a pastor — and were to recommend such 
persons as might be fit to be called and settled in the work of 
the gospel ministry ; and the associations were to see that 
churches did seasonably call and settle a minister, or to report 



The Say brook Platform. 2>7 

them to the General Assembly of the Colony. There had 
been occasional meetings of ministers before this, but, as 
Trumbull says, being "countenanced by no ecclesiastical con- 
stitution, attended only by such ministers in one place and 
another as were willing to associate, they had no regular 
existence. The churches might advise with them or neglect 
to do so, as they chose. There was no regular way of intro- 
ducing " candidates " into the ministry. The Platform was 
designed to bring these things into more order and system. 

The articles also recommended a General Association, to 
be composed of one or more delegates from each of the 
county associations, which should meet once a year. In 
recommending this last, the Platform said nothing about the 
duties of this body, and no change was ever made in the 
Platform defining the work of the General Association. It 
was not deemed necessary ; for in the general meetings, 
which the ministers of New England had long held at the 
time of the general elections at Boston and Hartford, they 
had been accustomed to go into consultations on the interests 
of the churches, and of the cause of literature; and to give 
advice when necessary; sometimes to devise measures for the 
relief of the poor, and for civilizing and Christianizing the 
Indians. It was not a legislative body, but being general 
the recommendation gave abundant scope for that range of 
consultation and discussion which has taken place in that 
body, particularly for attending to those various objects of 
benevolence and missionary enterprise that are of common 
concern, and for opening correspondence with other minis- 
terial and ecclesiastical bodies. 

This then was the Saybrook Platform — a scheme for the 
regular and orderly working of the churches. The three 
prominent objects had in view in adopting the Heads of 
Agreement and the fifteen Articles of Discipline were as 
stated by Dr. Bacon : 

" I. The promotion of order and harmony among the 
ministers and churches. 



38 SaybrooJSs QiiadrimillemaL 

2. The regular introduction of candidates into the min- 
istry. 

3. The estabh'shment of a fixed and defined board of 
appeal — the county consociation — a council by which such 
difficulties as the particular churches themselves cpuld not 
settle, might be adjusted." 

Thus the work of the Say brook Synod was completed by 
a unanimous vote, and the three documents were, one month 
afterwards, presented to the legislature in its October session 
at New Haven for approval and establishment. The legisla- 
tive act making this the established religion of the Colony, is 
as follows : 

"The Reverend ministers, delegates from the elders and 
messengers of this government, met at Saybrook, September 
9th, 1708, having presented to this Assembly a Confession 
of Faith, Heads of Agreement, and regulations in the admin- 
istration of church discipline, as unanimously agreed and 
consented to by the elders and churches in this government : 
this Assembly doth declare their great approbation of such 
an happy agreement and do crdain that all the cJuirches 
within this government that are, or shall be, thus united in 
doctrine, worship, and discipline, be, and for the future shall 
be established by laiv ; provided that nothing herein shall be 
intended or construed to hinder or prevent any society or 
church, that is or shall be allowed by the laws of this 
government, who soberly differ or dissent from the united 
churches hereby established, from exercising worship and 
discipline in their own way, according to their consciences." 

So by legislative enactment, the churches united under the 
Saybrook Platform became "the establishment," or, as it was 
known, "the Standing Order " of Connecticut, and all others 
were dissenters. This so continued for seventy-six years, or 
till 1784, when the legal establishment of the Saybrook 
Platform was abrogated, leaving all persons free to worship 
with whatever church they preferred. All, however, were 
Still taxed for some church, the church of their choice. In 



The Say brook Platform. 39 

the year 1818, when the new constitution of the State was 
formed, this hist restriction was removed, and all the 
churches were left entirely to voluntary support. 

The Platform was made the law of the State before it had 
been accepted by the bodies whose delegates prepared it. 
The next year, 1709, however, it was approved by the 
county conventions, and the Hartford North and South As- 
sociations and Consociations, the New Haven Association 
and Consociation, the Fairfield Association and Consociation, 
and the New London Association and Consociation were 
formed. Afterwards the New Haven was divided into the 
East and the West, and as new counties were formed other 
divisions were made. 

The first General Association was held at Hartford on the 
1 8th of May, 1709. The legislature in session at that time, 
May, 1709, ordered, that the General Association revise and 
prepare for the press the three parts of the Platform, "and 
being revised, that the same shall be forthwith printed." A 
printing-press, given by Governor Saltonstall to the Colony 
and set up at New London, the governor's residence, was 
used, and in the next year — 17 10 — the Saybrook Platform, 
the first book ever printed in Connecticut, was issued by 
Thomas Short. 

Under the Act by which the Saybrook Platform was made 
the established religion of the Colony, all persons who 
soberly dissented from the worship and ministry by law es- 
tablished (/. e., the Congregational), were permitted to enjoy 
the same liberty of conscience with the Dissenters in England, 
under the act of William and Mary in 1689—/. e. they were 
exempt from punishment for not conforming to the estab- 
lished religion, but not exempt from taxation for its support. 
Viy appearing before the county court, and there in legal terms 
declaring their "sober dissent" they could obtain permission 
to have public worship in their own way, but were still 
obliged to pay for the support of the Congregational churches 
in the places of their residence. There was a further relaxa- 



40 Saybroo/cs QHadrhnillenial. 

tion as it regards Episcopalians in 1727, and as it regards 
Quakers and Baptists in 1729. They were then exempted 
from taxation for the estabhshed churches, provided they 
attended on the worship of God in a tolerated society of their 
own denomination. 

The process of "signing off," as it was called, by which 
one might remove from a church of the "standing order" to 
another, was required in order to free one's self of the burden 
of taxation. The story is told of an influential citizen of one 
of the towns in the eastern part of the State, who had become 
wearied of being taxed for the established church, and who 
went to the proper official to sign the requisite paper by 
which he should be released. On the clerk objecting to draw 
up the paper because of his importance to the church, and 
finally refusing, the man himself took pen and paper, saying, 
"Well, then, I will draw it up myself." Whereupon he 
produced a certificate somewhat like this : " This is to 
certify that I, ■■ — , hereby renounce the Christian re- 
ligion that I may join the Episcopal church." 

Not all who left the "established order " were required to 
make such a renouncement of their faith. But Congregation- 
ahsts and Presbyterians were not understood as having the 
privilege of exemption. If for any reason any of them 
wished to secede and worship by themselves, they were still 
obliged to pay their taxes for the support of the church from 
which they seceded. Great was the hostility against the 
" Separates," who, according to our present views of re- 
ligious liberty, should have been freely allowed to secede and 
form distinct churches. The plain operation of the discrimi- 
nation against Separates or " Strict Congregationalists," as 
they sometimes called themselves, was to drive them into 
other denominations. If they seceded from the established 
church and formed another Congregational church, they 
were doubly taxed — i. e. for the new church and the old one 
too — by law for the old one and necessarily for the support 
of the new, whereas if they formed a church of another de- 



The Say brook Plat form. 41 

nomination, they were released from taxation for the one 
which they had left. This discrimination in the time of the 
Great Awakening in the middle of the last century resultetl 
in the formation of many Baptist churches. 

It was a matter of doubt what was the intent of the 
proviso at the close of the act of the legislature. The fair 
construction would seem to be that if one of the Congrega- 
tional churches should refuse to place itself under the Platform, 
it might maintain separate worship and be tolerated as the 
churches of other denominations were, but it was not so con- 
strued. Congregationalists were recjuired by law to accept 
the "standing order," and many churches and individuals 
suffered great hardships for conscience sake. An illustration 
of this was in the case of two brothers, Ebenezer and John 
Cleveland, students in Yale College in 1744. The corpora- 
tion of the college adopted the Platform, and the trustees and 
officers were required, upon their introduction into office, to 
give their assent to it and to the Westminster Confession 
and Catechism. The two students referred to were charged 
with attending "unlawful or separate meetings" during their 
vacation at home. On their return to college, they were 
suspended till they should confess publicly " that they had 
violated the laws of the Colony, of the college, and of God." 
P^ailing to do this, they were formally expelled and comman- 
ded "to depart from the college limits, no more to return; 
likewise the scholars were forbidden receiving them to their 
rooms or conversing with them, lest they be infected there- 
by." Many other instances of persecution because of Sep- 
aratism could be cited. 

All the Congregational churches existing at the time the 
Council met were sooner or later consociated, and as late as 
1 841, when there were two hundred and forty-six churches, 
all but fifteen were consociated. Gradually, however, since 
the civil authority was wholly withdrawn, the consociations 
have been changed to local conferences without judicial au- 
thority, and the churches have been left to select their own 
councils in all cases of difficulty. 



4^ Sayln^ooJcs Q7iach'-imille7iial. 

The one great outstanding objection to this scheme of 
government among CongregationaHsts has been the making 
consociations a judicial and authoritative tribunal ; that has 
always been regarded uncongregational. This objection has 
always held against the Platform itself. 

But much of the odium that attached itself to the Plat- 
form was due to the legislative action which made this the 
State religion, and enforced it with such rigor and unjust 
discrimination. It would have arisen against any union of 
Church and State. Our fathers came hither to get away from 
State religions, and they could not help being restive under 
the inconsistency of State interference and dictation in 
matters religious, even when they constituted the State and 
administered its laws. They could not be satisfied even 
though the " Separates " often, by their extreme and ultra 
views, their special revelations, and irregular and questionable 
practises, gave them some ground for complacency in enfor- 
cing the laws. It was a State religion. It was imposed upon 
them ; and they were of too sturdy and independent a stock 
to submit to dictation of that kind. 

The suspicion, too, that the Platform tilted towards Pres- 
byterianism led many to set themselves in opposition. John 
Wise, when the " Proposals " appeared in Massachusetts 
advocating the adoption of a similar system there, wrote : 
" They seem a conjunction of almost all the church govern- 
ments in the world, and the least part is Congregational. 
Indeed, at the first Cast of the Eye the Scheme seems to be 
the Spectre or Ghost of Presbyterianism * * yet if I don't 
mistake in intention there is something considerable of Prelacy 
in it, only the distinct Courts of Bishops, with the Steeples of 
the Churches, Tythes, Surplice and other Ornaments, do not 
show themselves so visible, as to be discerned at the first 
look; yet with a Microscope you may easily discern them 
really to be there in Einbyro, et in Reriim naiura, for this is 
a known maxim, 'Quod necessario Siibintcllegitur non Deest,' 
— what is necessarily understood, or lies hid in the Intention 



The Say brook Platfonii. 43 

of a Design, is really there by just Interpretation. * * 
There is also something in it which Smells very strong of 
the InfalHble Chair," And again he says: "Though it be 
but a Calf now, yet in time it may grow (being of a thirsty 
nature) to become a sturdy Ox, that will know no WJioa, and 
it may be past the Churches' skill then to subdue it. For if I 
am not much mistaken, That great and Terrible Beast with 
seven Heads and ten Horns, described in Revelation 13, was 
nothing a few Ages ago but just such another Calf as this is. 

. Therefore to conclude and infer, Obsta Principiis ! It 
is wisdom to nip such Growths in the Bud, and keep down 
by early slaughter such a breed of cattle. Nam omiie malum 
nascens facile opprimitur ! " 

And when Dr. Emmons put forth his famous axiom : 
" Association leads to Consociation ; Consociation leads to 
Presbyterianism ; Presbyterianism leads to Episcopacy ; 
Episcopacy leads to Roman Catholicism ; and Roman Cath- 
olicism is an ultimate fact" — then it was at last known by all 
how perilous the whole scheme had been ! 

The system worked well on the whole, and Saybrook has 
no reason to be ashamed that her name is attached to the 
historic document that has held so conspicuous a place 
among the confessions of the Christian church. It bore a 
large part in shaping Congregationalism. As Massachu- 
setts guarded the one principle, the independence of the local 
church : Connecticut defended its coordinate, the fellowship 
and cooperation of the churches. 

Gradually the system was relaxed, and what was judicial 
and authoritative about it disappeared. It would have been 
well if, in our swing toward independency, we had preserved, 
by common consent, more of what was really wholesome in 
the Saybrook system, and while guarding independence had 
preserved some more regularity in calling councils, introdu- 
cing into the ministry (and introducing out of it), and some 
sisterly or at least cousinly watch and care between churches 
of the same faith and order. 



44 Saybrook's Oiiadrimillenial. 

Rev. Dr. Porter of Farniington said at one time : " I have 
been a member of Hartford Consociation more than fifty 
years, and its doings, so far as I have observed, have been 
salutary only. And I know not how the same happy effect 
could have been secured in any other way. Nor does it 
seem to me contrary to the principles of Congregationalism, 
for a church having in itself the power of self-government to 
constitute the Consociation a standing council for ultimate 
decision in those extreme cases which require it." 

The ecclesiastical constitution adopted at Saybrook gave 
to Congregationalism recognized and formal associations of 
ministers for fellowship, mutual advice, and help in work, 
bodies for the examining and certifying candidates for the 
ministry, and for the discussion of questions of order and 
doctrine. This arrangement of clerical associations, now 
universally accepted, including all Congregational min- 
isters who recognize each other's regular standing in the 
ministry, and giving unity and completeness to our eccles- 
iastical system, without infringing upon the self-government 
of the churches, seems not to have been sustained elsewhere 
until the usefulness of association had been proved by ex- 
perience in Connecticut. 

The plan of consociation of churches in defined districts 
has found less favor beyond the limits of this State, but this 
example of confederation has had its influence. The stated 
annual meeting of local conferences is consociation in another 
form ; consociation stripped of its judicial and authoritative 
power. The churches of Connecticut, by their strict confed- 
eration, have guarded, maintained, and commended to Con- 
gregationalists everywhere, as I have said, the important and 
distinctive principle of our polity, the fellowship of the 
churches — the coordinate and complement of independency. 

It may be noted also, to the credit of the stable and secure 
condition insured under our ecclesiastical system, that while 
other true Christian churches have grown vigorously here 
and enjoyed the benefits, none of the religious organiza- 



The Say brook Platform. 45 

tions commonly regarded as aiiti-cvangclical or anti -orthodox 
has ever flourished among the native population of our State. 
" Whatever fault," said Dr. Ikicon iu his historical address 
delivered in 1859, from which I have drawn liberally and 
often literally, " we may find in our ecclesiastical system, 
whatever errors may have been made from time to time in 
the working of it, whatever reasons we may have to in([uire 
whether the system needs revis-ion and reconstruction, * * 
our own Connecticut to-day, with all its imperfections, is the 
convincing testimony to the value of these two principles — 
the association of pastors for professional fellowship and 
mutual cooperation, and the friendly confederation of the 
churches — which were first inaugurated and made effective 
by our fathers" here at Saybrook "one hundred and fifty 
years ago." 

A quartette then sang Mrs. fiemans's hymn, "The Land- 
ing of the Pilgrim Fathers," the musical arrangement being 
by Mr. WiLLlAM J. Wood of Saybrook. 



Tlie breakiiii; waves dashed Iiigli 
Oil a stern and rock-bound coast, 

And the woods against a stormy sky 
Their giant branches tossed ; 

And the heavy niglit hung dark 

The hills and waters o'er, 
When a band of exiles moored their bark 

On the wihl New England sliore. 

Not as the contiucror comes, 
They, the true-hearted, came ; 

Not with the roll of stirring drums, 
And tiie trumpet that sings of fame ; 

Not as the flying come. 

In silence and in fear ; 
They shook the depths of the desert gloom 

With their hymns of lofty cheer. 



46 SaybrooJzs QuadriniilleniaL 



Amidst the storm they sang, 

And the stars heard, and the sea, 

And the sounding aisles of the dim woods rang 
To the anthem of the free. 

Tlie ocean eagle soared 

From his nest by the white wave's foam, 
And the rocking pines of the forest roared— 

This was their welcome home. 



What sought they thus afar ? 

Bright jewels of the mine? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? 

They sought a faith's pure shrine ! 

Ay, call it holy ground. 

The soil where first they trod, 

Tliey have left unstained what there they found- 
Freedom to worship God. 

The Rev. JuilN Edward Busiinell, Pastor of the Con- 
gregational Church in Fairfield, Conn., also a native of 
Saybrook, then spoke on 

"SAYBROOK IN THE REVOLUTION." 

The distinguished part borne by Connecticut in the Revo- 
lution needs no praise to-day. Her honors are safe, woven 
into the life of the nation's history. Enough to say that it 
was hers to give a Governor, Trumbull, to Washington's 
right hand — his "Brother Jonathan" — in counsel; that she 
advanced her millions for the "sinew" of that war, and sent 
with this sinew a soul to quicken it, in the persons of 32,000 
out of her total 40,000 fighting men — sent out of her own 
borders, leaving her own precious homes defenceless, that 
they might go to the continental army. She was the first 
of the colonies to instruct delegates to the continental Con- 
gress to strike for liberty. Her sleepless devotion had ready 
at hand for the battle of Bunker Hill, 3,000 men, and of those 



Say brook in I he Rcvohition. 47 

whom Washington commanded at the beginning of the con- 
flicts about New York, more than one-half were from her 
vaHant yeomanry. While then Connecticut was a small star 
among those that shone upon the old flag that led the Revo- 
lutionary forces, she was lighted up — as it seems to her always 
modest children — with a lustre that was shadowed by none. 

My theme is Saybrook's portion of her lion-share. 

But that we wish to-day to honor the details of history, it 
would be safe and sufficient to say that she bore her share 
along with her sister towns in the patient, devoted service of 
that generation. In looking for eminent distinctions in her 
pages we do not find them. Never did I so earnestly crave 
a battle-field for the old town, with an honored list of killed 
or captured, and thrilling adventures by land and sea, 
and then to be able to take from their sacred resting-place 
the old war-scarred banners and wave them here, and say 
to the blooming generation of the present hour : " These 
are the standards that your fathers held when they drove 
the British invader from their gates." And to think that if 
they had only been quick enough, they might have started 
the battle of Lexington among the reeds and bullrushes of 
our own fair streams ! 

We can wish all this, but it could not be. The war was 
not here. The plan of it was New York — north and south — 
cutting off New England from the rest of the continent on 
the one side and preventing such a division on the other. 
Except for excursions for booty or malice, there was no mo- 
tive to bring the enemy to our towns. But while such was 
the plan and sphere of the war, there remained always the 
possibility of a change, and the consequent danger felt for 
Saybrook, so favorably situated for strategic purposes. The 
British boats hovered about Long Island and menaced coast 
and river. For their own reasons they did not attempt to 
possess the river. Perhaps they preferred to have us keep 
the bar. There is abundant reason to believe that the people 
of Saybrook were thoroughly alive to the spirit of the Rev- 



48 Saybroolcs Qitadriinillcnial. 

olution; the constant view of British patrols passing up the 
Sound was a daily reminder, if they needed any. 

In the record of the colony we find that among the com- 
panies which went to the relief of Boston during the Lex- 
ington alarms, April, 1775, was one of fifty-nine men from 
Say brook. In July of the same year the Point was further 
aroused by the entrance of a British sloop chasing a Colony 
schooner and examining her, while the militia, drawn by the 
excitement to the shore, made a itw exchanges of shot with 
them — the first of those grim courtesies of the war. 

In the following year, (1776), Gov. Trumbull issued a pro- 
clamation requesting all persons who were exempt from active 
military service to organize companies to keep up the war 
spirit at home. Saybrook was one of the towns to respond 
heartily. 

In August, 1776, a ship was built at Saybrook and passed 
over the bar; the largest with which this old Neptunian rib had 
ever had the honor of trying conclusions. In the same season, 
Saybrook with three other towns raised the seventh regiment 
for the continental army. In the May previous so zealous 
were they that an appeal was made to the Legislature, and 
granted, for building a fort on the site of the old one, to con- 
tain six carriage-guns for the defense of the town and river 
interests. To encourage them the more in this patriotic 
action, twenty men were sent to their assistance out of the 
regular army. Needless to say, this defensive enterprise took 
time, labor, and expense. It was watched with anxious in- 
terest by all "the colony. With the work of ship-building and 
fort-raising, in addition to the sending of men away to the 
frontier lines of service, the eventful year of 1776 was filled 
for them with sacrifice and the true spirit of the Revolution. 
The State records are a sufficient witness to the fidelity of 
her citizens. She has her share of names in the roll of 
private soldiers who laid down their lives in battle, and of 
those who were discharged with honorable wounds. A just 
proportion of them, too, bore the title of Adjutant, Quarter- 



Say brook in the Rczwlntioii. 4§ 

master, Ensign, Lieutenant, Captain, and if they failed to at- 
tain to a Generalship it was because the old zvolf-Zuutier frotn 
Poinfret could not spare them from their* trusty flint-locks for 
the idle business of wearing the gilt. We may add incidentally 
to our previous mention, that the building of the ship at Say- 
brook seems to, have been made a matter of universal concern. 
Beginning with January, 1776, the records are replete with 
solicitude about that boat. Capt. X. is appointed to build it. 
At another date, Capt. Y. is sent to supervise and hasten 
him. Then follows frequent mention of acts about rigging 
and duck for that boat at Saybrook, not to speak of moneys 
sent to lubricate the machinery of progress still more. I am 
not sure but that it was the cackling of the whole roost- 
full over that one egg which frightened the British fleet 
from our river. The trouble did not end till the " Oliver 
Cromwell" was safely "over the bar, and certain of the build- 
ers were brought to trial for alleged abuse of the building 
money. Whether she, on the high seas, kept up the notoriety 
begun on the stays I cannot report, but as Azariah Whittle- 
sey, of Saybrook, was her master, it is safe to say that she 
never ran from the enemy's fire. 

In the same month that this naval thunderer went out of 
the river, wafted on full sail by the acclamations of soldiers 
at the fort and the jubilees of her citizens along the shore, 
another of the town's sea-princes, Capt. Seth Warner, received 
commission and money to raise a crew of no seamen for 
duty on the northern lakes. For the few months following^ 
the life of the town is varied by excitements attending watch 
on British patrol-boats, the going and coming of companies, 
and the perfecting of the fort. 

Letters of 1776 are in the possession of our townsman, Mr. 
Tully, written by valiant soldiers of the place, far off in the 
Massachusetts camps, filled with the exciting news from the 
very front line of war. Her sons were not to be drawn into 
the war reluctantly; they were in an even line with the fore- 
most on land and sea. 



50 SaybrooJcs Qtiadrimillenial. 

The year 1777 opened, as we may imagine, with increased 
fever in the veins of Revolution. In April, the town receives 
peculiar renown through the scientific genius of one of her 
sons, David Bushnell, who was born in the Westbrook parish. 
This man appears before Governor and Council to exhibit a 
torpedo arrangement for naval warfare. The acute minds of 
Brother Jonathan and Gen. Putnam were not slow to see the 
merits of his idea, and they furnished him with the requisite 
provision, that he might put it to an immediate trial. Making 
his headquarters at our ferry, he then went to work to construct 
the famous "American Turtle," by which one Yankee expected 
to sink the whole British navy. The inventor began with A it* 
the alphabet of the science. His first labor was to prove that 
gunpowder would explode under water. Then he built the 
boat. It outwardly resembled two tortoise shells in contact, 
seven and one-half feet long, with just room for the captain, 
who was also the crew in this case, and with air enough to 
last thirty minutes. Most of the ballast was attached to the 
keel and could be lowered to the bottom for anchorage. The 
boat was so arranged with a paddle system that it could be 
moved in either direction, the paddles being operated by the 
feet. He had a barometer in the boat by which he could 
estimate his distance from the surface, and also a compass by 
which to direct his course. He was especially troubled about 
the use of light. A flame would consume the air in a short 
time. A kind of wood was found that was suitable for his 
purpose except when it was injured by frost, and he wrote to 
Dr. Franklin to inquire about the use of phosphorus, which 
he was finally able to substitute. x 

Gen, Putnam himself was down to see the first experiment, 
which was unsuccessful, in not grappling the magazine to the 
enemy's ship. Other attempts were made, but, alas for 
human hopes ! the British tar still rode the main. The good 
frigate Cerberus came very near destruction off New London. 
The torpedo, however, was so stupid as to grapple an inoffen- 
sive Colony schooner near her, and demolished it instead. 



Sayhrook in the Revolulion. 5 1 

After this blunder " the Turtle " was excused and allowed to 
put its head within its shell, but not until it had succeeded 
in alarming the enemy and making them extremely cautious 
about their naval demonstrations. The inventor then used the 
same principle in the employment of kegs of powder, which 
were to explode by a system of machinery, on contact with the 
hostile ships. A fleet of them was set afloat on the Delaware 
river and commissioned to drift down the stream and destroy 
the enemy. But this time it was the ice, (was ever an inven- 
tor so beset as ours ?) and the kegs, having just as much feel- 
ing against the ice as against the British fleet, went bravely 
to work and cleared the river of it, leaving the English — 
excepting one unfortunate vessel which went up with the ice — 
wondering what manner of country it could be where water, 
and ice, and sometimes schooners, floated up-hill. They were 
forthwith thrown into a panic, for they ranged the shores 
along, and fired mercilessly at the floating kegs till they were 
glad to hide their heads. To-day every American school- 
lad knows where the " Battle of the Kegs " was contested, 
when the valley of the Delaware was shadowed throughout 
by the grim visage of war. As showing the shamefacedness 
of the English over this event, it may be mentioned that 
they offered a reward for Bushnell, living or dead. But he 
escaped to serve his country to the end of the war. This 
submarine science thus begun, though not as apparently suc- 
cessful as it seemed to deserve, was the beginning of great 
things. It established forever the principle of submarine ex- 
plosives and set a whole school of successors (notably Robert 
Fulton) at work on the same idea*; and to-day our government 
with its thousands of miles of open sea-coast, and without a 
single ship for the defense of it, worthy of the flag it carries, is 
rendered almost impregnable against the costliest iron-clad 
fleets of modern Europe, by that deadly little scourge which 
works out of sight and brings death and destruction out of 
the depths of the sea. If then, as seems to be just, the greatest 
war-defense of our nation, the American torpedo, is the 



5 2 Say brook's Quadrimillcnial. 

youngest child of the genius which had the " American 
Turtle" for its first-born, then to Yale College which schooled 
that genius, and to Saybrook which cradled them both, 
belongs the glory, which eclipses every other in Revolution- 
ary annals, for the science which was then rudely shapen, at 
present promises to change every principle of naval equip- 
ment and warfare for all nations. During the rest of the war, 
as they began, the people of this town went on, doing their 
share of the work ; sending out men ; on guard at home. 

Owing to the location of the town, there was frequent 
contact with that subtle kind of foe which works without 
sword, by stealth and in the darkness — the enemy within the 
gates. The British on the Sound were glad of the Tory 
aid which brought them contraband supplies from up the 
river. We are proud to learn that in their passage down the 
river, they found a sleepless watch at the Point. And this 
brings us to the only sanguinary battle of the Revolution 
fought on Saybrook soil. A mass of contraband articles had 
been taken from the Tories, and a young man — William 
TuUy — was set to watch it, in the house formerly owned by 
Capt. John Whittlesey, still standing at the Point. 

On a certain night eight Tories came to the house and 
demanded entrance. TuUy begged to be excused from 
opening the door. They broke in without further parley and 
rushed forward, Tully's flint was faithful to the trip of the 
hammer and struck fire. The musket ball passed through 
the first man, and to Tully's surprise he still advanced, but 
the man directly back of him dropped dead. Tully then 
surrounded the other six men and would have incontinent- 
ally put them all to the bayonet (and did wound one of 
. them), had they not contrived to escape by the windows. 
The first man whom Tully shot finally discovered that the 
ball had passed through him, and dropped dead with one 
hand on the window and the other grasping a chest of tea. 
The retreating forces left a quarter of their number dead on 
the field — or floor — and a quarter of the remaining were 



Say brook in the Revolution. 53 

carried away wounded in their arms. It is, perhaps, note- 
worthy that the continental army did not lose a man. 

About the same time a Mr. Charles Williams of the Toiiit 
also constituted himself a continental army, and hearing one 
night the rubbing of boat-keels on the beach, ran out and 
cried to the passing winds : "Turn out, guard.s ! Turn out ! " 
and the enemy fled, pursued by imaginary legions of the 
adversary. This man's name takes us gracefully over to 
Groton. His son, Daniel Williams, he allowed to go as 
substitute for another man at Fort Grisvvold, receiving in pay- 
ment a hogshead of cider, the legal tender for debts in those 
days. Young Daniel reached the fort on the day before the 
massacre, and was killed while passing powder to the soldiers 
in the fort. He was the youngest member of the garrison. 
Of Saybrook men killed at Fort Grisvvold, there were in all 
five ; several others were wounded. Among those taken 
prisoners was a Saybrook man. Lieutenant Jabez Stovve, 
who seems to have been a valiant soldier. The government 
afterward remunerated him for the losses and hardships en- 
dured by him in the service, and it was even proposed to 
give him a medal of honor. 

It is, I may add, a tradition in my own family circle that 
there was also a brother of this Lieut. Stowe present at the 
attack on Fort Griswold, who escaped death by concealment 
among the bodies of the slain, and after the slaughter walked 
to this town, to his own home, bringing the first intelligence 
of the disaster. 

Such are the fragments of history which make up the story 
of our town in the fevered days of the Revolution. 

If that part were not a conspicuous one it was certainly a 
faithful : heroic, in that they did all that God or man could 
ask of them. 

To know what the town was then, we must divest our 
fancies of those colorings which make it now to us the fairest 
corner of the globe. They fought for homes, humbler far 
than those which adorn its streets to-day, but they were 



54 SaybrooJcs Qiiadriinilleiiial. 

homes as precious to them. Perhaps a dozen of the dwell- 
ings then standing are standing yet — those changed, and all 
else how changed ! Suppose the homes that make the 
town for us all gone ; remove both church edifices now 
standing; put the predecessor of this one, where we now 
are met, across the street on the public green ; gather by- 
fancy into that plain meeting-house for weekly devotion all 
the people of the town, and at the head of that Christian fold 
put that venerable and illustrious man, Rev. William Hart, 
for fifty-two years the honored and honoring pastor, who 
through his long and useful ministry was known as one of 
the very foremost thinkers, scholars and debaters of his 
day ; from our streets remove those stately trees which are 
now our pride ; take the paint from most of the dwellings, 
and on the remaining substitute the plain, not costly, red of 
that day ; destroy the fences and abridge the walks to narrow 
unkept paths; think of the men as walking about in homely 
garments, spun by the hands of their good wives and 
ruddy daughters, and earning their living by their own hard 
industrious tilling of the soil where God had ordered it ; 
ascribe unto them the princely spirit of the sons and daugh- 
ters of God, who scorned the fear of man, with whom 
liberty was synonymous with life, and who were willing to do 
and die for the sweet sake of that liberty; and we have Say- 
brook in the Revolution. 

After an organ solo by Mr. FRANK Inman Clark of 
Saybrook — Mendelssohn's "War March of the Priests" — the 
Rev. Salmon McCall of East Haddam, for many years 
Pastor of the Congregational Church in Saybrook, spoke on 

"THE DIVISIONS OF THE OLD COLONY." 

Last Sabbath morning I felt very much at home in this 
place, but I come to-day as one born out of due time, since 



The Divisiojis of the Old Colony. 55 

it was only last Saturday evening that I received the invita- 
tion to speak on this theme. To think of asking me, a man 
of peace, who have been striving all my life to prevent and 
heal divisions, to speak on such a subject as this, so difficult, 
so painful, and so delicate — "The Divisions of the Old Col- 
ony " ! However, the call has come, and here I am. 

First, we must give a few moments to the consideration 
of that Norwich business, in 1660, a very painful afifair in its 
time. It was not supposed that so wise a man and so great 
a king as Solomon in his time, could successfully divide a 
living infant, and both parts should live afterwards, but that 
was about the experiment which this Norwich business tried, 
and, wonderful to tell, both parts lived and are living and 
flourishing to-day. The early settlers had scarcely begun to 
feel themselves at home here before they were called upon to 
part with a majority of their number, and, among them, many 
of those of the greatest weight of character, to go far hence 
into the wilderness, and take up new lands, leaving the min- 
ority to struggle and wrestle, as best they might, to sustain 
their existence here. I think they worried along with many 
sighs and tears for about five years, until there came to them 
a very famous pastor in the person of the ancestor of Dr. 
Buckingham, after whose coming this church flourished ex- 
ceedingly well. 

Who were these men, who went over to Norwich ? John 
Mason, for one, a tremendous fighter of Indians; James Fitch, 
for another, the early pastor of this church, and, in his time, 
one of the wisest and strongest men in the colony. They 
went over to Norwich very well pleased with the situation of 
things over there and very well pleased with one another, for 
it turned out in the lapse of time that Mr. Fitch, having 
become a widower, asked Priscilla Mason, daughter of John, 
if she would finish the rest of life's journey with him. We 
do not know very much about her, but probably she may be 
classed with that other Priscilla whom Miles Standish did not 
marry and John Alden did. Mr. Fitch was the father of four- 



^6 SaybrobJcs Qtiadrwiillcnial. 

teen children — I suppose about the average number for those 
days — and Norwich was found quite too narrow to contain the 
energies of these settlers, so they overflowed into the borders 
of what is now the town of Lebanon, in which town Rev. Mr. 
Buckingham and myself had the honor to be born, and where 
Mr. Fitch was buried. I remember among the sights of my 
boyhood, the figures of some of these majestic men and 
women, the descendants of John Mason and James Fitch. 
I am reminded of what was said to Gideon respecting his 
brethren: "Each one resembling the children of a king." 
Let me recall to the recollection of some who are here to-day, 
as one of the descendants of those early settlers, Jeremiah 
Mason, who was regarded as one of the most magnificent 
men this commonwealth, this country, has ever produced ; in 
his profession having few if any superiors. 

They are doing very well over there, and all the better 
surely for having been reinforced in these later days by the 
bright example and the patriotic labors of one whose ancestors 
for five generations made this place their home, and who, 
though not born here, was in his infancy here baptized. They 
will not hesitate to allow that in the shining roll of their 
worthies there is no more honorable, no more inspiring name, 
no name deserving to be held in more lasting remembrance in 
the commonwealth and in the nation, than that of William 
A. Buckingham. 

Well, we are glad for them that they found so favorable a 
place and that they have done so well. We extend to them 
greetings and congratulations, and may God bless them from 
this time forth and forever ! 

This town of Saybrook spread its wings in those days 
across the river, and so we must have a word in regard to our 
fellow citizens in the town of Lyme. You know they have 
been very much given to the rearing and supporting of law- 
yers. It has been a lawyers' town, and we over here have 
sometimes feared they might get too much into a legal way 
of thinking and of living. Nevertheless we are much pleased 



The Divisions of tlic Old Colony. 57 

with the enihiencc to which many of their sons' have come. 
We have seen their citizens selected by the people of the 
State of Connecticut and placed in the Governor's chair. 
We have seen them seated upon the bench of the Supreme 
Court of the State of Connecticut, and one of them Chief 
Justice of the State, and now his son Chief Justice of the 
United States, a position in the judgment of some the high- 
est to which any citizen of this Republic can aspire. I had 
hoped to see here to-day the venerable face of one of those 
lawyers, one of those judges, Lieutenant Governor, judge, and 
foreign minister all in one, a graduate of Yale College in 
18 17; but, as he is not here to speak for himself, I should like 
to tell a little story about him, and I shall tell it with a special 
interest because our venerable President Porter is here, a man 
who to me has seemed to know about everything that is 
worth knowing in this world, but I think he had the misfor- 
tune in his college days of not being one of the " Brothers in 
Unity," and so of course he could not know anything about 
the rich treats we enjoyed in those grand old days, when at 
our annual reunions, one year His Excellency Governor 
Bissell presided, at another His Honor Lieutenant Governor 
McCurdy did the same. And I tcll this little story to show 
that the college has in these later years been in some measure 
indebted to these old towns. 

Mr. McCurdy w-as president of the Brothers in Unity in 
his senior year, and like other presidents he had patronage 
to dispense. Among the appointments in his gift was that 
of reader for the freshman class. Of course he knew no one 
in tiiat class; for what senior ever did know a freshman ? But 
he cast his eye over the benches where the freshmen sat and 
he saw among them one little black-eyed boy, and he thought 
there was something in him, so he ventured to appoint him 
to the office; "and thus," said he, "I set his feet upon the 
lowest step of the ladder, which he has ascended steadily till 
the present day, when he occupies a position of as much 
honor, influence, and fame, as any man in this Republic." 



58 SaybrooISs QuadriiniUeniai. 

The name of the Httle black- eyed boy is Theodore D wight 
Woolsey. 

So much for the divisions of the old Colony times. 

For one hundred and seventy years the town remained one 
and the population increased to 8,000, who dwelt here har- 
moniously. In 1835 or 1836, the people in the north part 
of this town wished for a corporate existence. Then, as 
Chester had done so well in setting up housekeeping for her- 
self, those in the west part thought they would like to be in- 
dulged in the same privileges, and the process thus begun 
went on so that in about twenty years five towns were carved 
out of this one — Chester, Westbrook, Old Saybrook, Essex, 
and Saybrook. On some accounts we have regretted these 
manifold divisions, and yet we bear the most cordial good- 
will to every section and rejoice in the prosperity of each 
and all in their several pursuits. And let me suggest to those 
who in form have separated from us, that there may yet be 
blessings to come upon them from the old home and hearth- 
stone. And to illustrate my meaning let me relate a little in- 
cident which occurred here not so very many years ago. 

It so happened in those days that some of the citizens liv- 
ing north of here became seriously disturbed in their neigh- 
borly and family relations, in consequence of having been 
out upon the errand of a hunting party. After the hunting 
was ended they must have something to eat and drink, and 
the result was that they became a little pugnacious. Two 
men came to blows, and after the wine was out and the wit 
was not fully in, they thought they must have redress, and so 
one of them proposed to prosecute the other. They said, "We 
must have a worthy man to judge us." They saw an old 
man down here whom they were willing to trust, a man who 
stood high in church and state, arid they said, " We will go 
down and see him." Lawyers were engaged on both sides; 
the worthy magistrate held his court; all things were said 
except the final sentence. The justice said, " I am satisfied 
what verdict to give. The result of the whole thing I am 



Minister Biickinghani and his Family. 59 

afraid will be a family feud for generations. I advise you two 
gentlemen to come together and shake hands and say it is all 
right ; and now, as an inducement with you so to do, I will give 
you the fees of my office for holding this court." The effect 
was very great, and they began to be thoughtful Presently 
one witness said, " I will charge you nothing," and another 
said ** I will charge you nothing," and the lawyers said " We 
will charge you nothing," and then their hearts were softened 
and they bowed down and confessed that they had done each 
other wrong, and asked forgiveness. They went home happy 
and afterwards lived in peace. Blessed are the peacemakers. 
Scarcely anything needs to be said about church affairs. 
In the early times there was this one old church. Now there 
are six Congregational churches, four Baptist churches, two 
Methodist churches, two Episcopal churches, two Catholic 
churches, within the borders of the original town on this side 
of the river. One Methodist church has ceased to be. In 
all there have been eighteen churches, all sound in the faith, 
confessing the substance of the doctrine set forth in connec- 
tion with the Saybrook Platform. 

The Rev. SAMUEL G. BUCKINGHAM, D. D., LL. D., of 
Springfield, Mass., a descendant of a former pastor of Say- 
brook, read a paper on 



"xMINISTER BUCKINGHAM AND HIS FAMILY. 

Rev. Thomas Buckingham, the second pastor of this 
church, was the son of Thomas Buckingham, one of the com- 
pany which settled New Haven in 1638. This able and 
opulent company, led by such men as Eaton and Hopkins, 
rich London merchants, and Mr. Davenport, who had been a 
famous minister in London and was followed by many of 
his congregation, reached Boston the previous summer, where 
they passed the winter, and the next spring they sailed 



6o Saybroolcs Qnadrhnillcnial. 

around to Ouinnipiack, the Indian name of their future 
home. 

This old Puritan settler and ancestor of all of the name in 
this country is registered among the original planters of New 
Haven, and in the first division of lands received his allot- 
ment near the corner of College and Crown Streets, some- 
where near the large spreading oak under which Mr. Daven- 
port preached his first sermon on the " Dangers of the 
Wilderness," and not far from the spot where Dr. Lyman 
Beecher was afterwards born. 

It was decided to make another settlement at Milford, and 
as the company had brought over two ministers, Mr. Daven- 
port and Mr. Prudden, the latter became the pastor of the 
new flock. The church was organized at New Haven and 
the mode of organization was this : Seven men were 
selected for their known Christian character, who covenanted 
with God and with each other, to walk together in all the 
ways and ordinances of the gospel. To these the rest were 
joined. Among those " seven pillars," as they were called, 
is still found on the old records the name of Thomas Buck- 
ingham, and among those soon added is Hannah, his wife. 
Opposite his name, in the handwriting of the second minister, 
is the entry, " dy at Boston, 1657." Upon the death of Mr. 
Prudden, he was sent to the Bay to procure another minister ; 
and it appears from the probate records at New Haven, that 
he made his will just before he left and that he never returned. 

The pastor of this church was the youngest of his six chil- 
dren, two of whom were born in England. This one bore his 
father's name, and was born at Milford, November 8th, 1646. 
Minister Buckingham, as he was called, began his ministry 
here in 1665, though he was not ordained until 1670. Where 
he was educated is not known, but he probably studied the- 
ology with Rev, John Whiting of Hartford, where he married 
his wife, Hester Hornier. His parish was large, embracing the 
present towns of Old Saybrook, Saybrook, Chester, Essex, 
Westbrook, and a considerable part of Lyme across the river. 



JMinistcr Buckiiigham and his Family. 6i 

At the same meeting when the town agreed upon the terms 
of settlement with Mr. Buckingham, the " IMack Hill quar- 
ter," which represented Lyme, was allowed to form a separate 
parish, having sufficient land for thirty families.* The new 
minister was but eighteen years of age, and succeeded that 
able man, Mr. James Fitch, who had removed to Norwich, 1" 
taking with him, as we have been told, a number of his most 
valuable parishioners, and greatly weakening this church ; 
yet the young pastor maintained and built up the church, 
and sustained himself here for forty-four years, growing into 
the respect and love of his people, and becoming influential 
throughout the colonies. 

One of the most important works of your pastor's minis- 
try was the part he took in the founding of Yale College. 
The New Haven Colony had purposed from the first to have 
a college. Some fifty years before. New Haven had matle 
a donation of ^^300 for such a purpose, and Milford proposed 
to give ;^I00 more. Gov. Hopkins's gift to found a gram- 
mar school, the one which now bears his name at New 
Haven, was at one time surrendered into the hands of the 
general court, for the purpose of making it a college; and 
the legislature promised an annual appropriation for some 
such institution. But the college at Cambridge needed all the 
funds that could be collected for such a purpose. Frequent 
contributions were made to it from both the Connecticut and 
New Haven Colonies, and money was also paid to it out of 
the public treasury. And for all these )'ears the inhabitants 

*Tlie connection between Saybrook and Lyme must always liave been 
close, not only on account of their near neighborhood and early connection in 
the same parish, but as also appears on the records from iheir frc<pient inter- 
marriages. This was true of our own family, for while our father was of Say- 
brook, our mother was from Lyme. 

f Mr. Fitch lived and died there at the ripe age of eighty, or rather in 
that vicinity, for he spent the very last of his life and died in my native town of 
Lebanon, I have often read that long and elegant obituary in Latin upon his 
gravestone ; it could hardly have been better written, if he, scholar as he was, 
had composed it himself. 



62 Saybroolcs QiiadrlinilleniaL 

of tlie State educated their sons there. But the original plan 
was never relinquished, until in 1700, those ten ministers, of 
whom your pastor was one, who had been nominated and 
agreed upon as trustees, came together at Branford, and with 
their few books, and by that simple declaration from each, 
" I give these books to the founding of a college in this Col- 
ony," they laid the corner stone of that university which has 
so long been the seat of sound learning and of true piety, 
and promises to remain such as long as the love of learning 
and Christian faith shall last. True, those few books were a 
small endowment for such an institution, but they implied a 
love of letters which would afterwards furnish the needed 
facilities for all kinds of education and forms of culture. The 
pecuniary value of such gifts was trifling, but it was the pledge 
of all the liberality which has been, or shall be embodied in 
the rich endowment of its future. And the minister who had 
so much to do with the founding of this college, and the 
community who were so anxious to have it located among 
them, and subscribed almost as much as New Haven for this 
purpose (Saybrook's subscription being ^500 sterling, while 
New Haven's with its greater population and means was only 
^700), may always claim honorable and grateful mention from 
every historian of the university. 

But the college, if founded, had no endowment. It had 
not even a location. Mr. Lynde of this town was pleased 
generously to give a house and land for the use of the college 
so long as it should continue here. The trustees, after some 
debate, made choice of this as the most convenient location 
for their collegiate school, and chose Mr. Pierson of Killing- 
worth as its rector. But he, not being able to remove here, 
was allowed to retain some of the students there, while others 
were sent here to study under tutors, and be under the super- 
vision of Mr. Buckingham. This state of things continued 
for a dozen years, and the commencements were held here ; 
and it was not until 17 18 that the college was fully located at 
New Haven, and the first commencement held there. The 



Atinistcr Biickiiiokam and his Family. 63 

history of that removal, and the temporary opposition made 
to it here, I need not rehearse. It is enough to know that 
your minister remained until his death, a faithful and trusted 
member of its corporation, and when he died, his son Stephen, 
the minister of Norwalk, succeeded to the same trust, while 
you have always been educating your sons at that college. 

Mr. Buckingham's position among the churches of Connec- 
ticut was highly honorable to him. lie was chosen one of 
the two moderators of the Synod held here in 1708, and 
which framed the " Saybrook Platform," as it is called. Of 
the nature of that ecclesiastical system of faith and church 
organization, I need not speak, after the careful and candid 
consideration of the subject by Professor Pratt, to which we 
have just listened. If I was to make any additional sugges- 
tion, it would be : — that while it proved a mistake to con- 
nect the churches so closely with the civil government, and 
create a "standing order" by law, which all must be taxed 
to support, except as they formally joined some other denom- 
ination, and while it was too great a departure from pure 
Congregationalism towards Presbyterianism: — there is this to 
be said about its adoption : the times were bad : and there 
were many difficulties in the churches, and unsatisfactory 
modes of settling them : and there had been a falling away 
from the original faith and exemplary living of the first set- 
tlers. The magistrates and the ministers were on the most 
friendly terms, the former being accustomed to consult the 
latter on matters of legislation, and the latter thinking that 
more rigid laws, and a stronger ecclesiastical system enforced 
by the State, would remedy the evils under which they were 
suffering, were ready to ask for such aid, which, like all 
church-and-state unions, sooner or later harm the church 
more than they help it. There was also a large Presb}'terian 
element in the Connecticut churches, and much intercourse 
and a close sympathy with New York and New Jersey, where 
Presbyterian churches were numerous which favored such 
action. And if that Synod made concessions to Presbyter- 



64 SaybrooJc s QuadrzimileniaL 

ianism, which none of the other churches of New England 
have seen fit to make, it certainly does honor to their cath- 
olicity of spirit and Christian liberality, if not to their wisdom. 

Mr. Buckingham's connection with the Indians of this 
region was also an interesting one. Uncas, chief of the 
Mohigans in the eastern part of the State, had always been 
a good friend to the settlers. He and his sons sold and gave 
away many tracts of land to persons in this town and else- 
where.* Mr. Buckingham and Thomas Clark purchased such 
a tract of Joshua Uncas, one of his sons, lying in the north 
part of Lebanon, where our family afterwards settled, though 
not upon that land, or having any connection with it, but 
where several of the name did settle. Attawanhood, another 
of the sons of Uncas, was chief of the Indians in this vicinity, 
and of the same disposition. He seems to have come quite 
under the influence of our civilization and Christianity, for 
he makes Minister Buckingham one of the executors of his 
will and the guardian of his children. He directed that his 
sons should live near Saybrook, and be taught English by 
their mother, and, at the end of four years, be placed in an 
English school, and he also requested for himself, that he 
might be " buried at Saybrook, in a coffin, after the manner 
of the English " ; all this is another pleasant tribute to the 
memory of your good minister. 

As to his family, it may be said that he had nine children, 
seven of whom lived to grow up and marry and settle here, 
leaving behind them families of children. 

Thomas was a prominent man in town affairs, being appoin- 
ted to many important offices of trust, and was also a prom- 
inent member of the church, and a large land-holder. 

Daniel was for many years justice of the peace, and held 

*It is often charged upon our ancestors, that tliey robbed the Indians of 
their lands, or paid for them with a few coats or iiatchets ; but these lands had 
no value. As late as 1776, the land which Massachusetts claimed as a part of 
her southern boundary, and was finally surrendered to Connecticut, was sold at 
auction, and only brought a little more than a farthing an acre. 



Minister Jhickinghaiu and Jiis l^'amily. 65 

other important offices in the town, and was also a prominent 
member of the church. lie was also a large land-holder. 

Stephen was pastor of the church at Norwalk thirty years. 

HezekiaJi also appears frccjucntly as appointed to offices 
of trust. 

The tJiree sisters were also married and settled here, leav- 
ing behind them children, some of whose descendants, under 
other names than the family name, are well known to you 
and respected. 

Our branch of the family, descendimg through Daniel, 
Daniel Jr., Samuel, Samuel Jr., made this their home for 
four generations, and their dust has mingled freely with the 
ashes of your friends. My father left here at the beginning 
of this century, and indeed his eldest child was born here. 
But wherever his children have been located, they have 
thought kindly of the home of their ancestry, and been most 
grateful to that good minister, who taught them as he had 
been taught himself, " To fear God and keep His command- 
ments" and " To love others as we love ourselves," as the 
first preparation for the duties of this life, and the only 
preparation for the life immortal. 

The following almost obliterated inscriptions are still found 
on stones in the old burying ground at Saybrook Point: — 

" Here lies the body of the 

Rev Mr Thomas Buckingham 

Pastor of the Church of 

Christ in Saybrook, dec'd 

April ye 1st 1709 in ye 

63 year of his age " 



" Mrs IIestkr Buckingham 

Wife to ye Rev Mr Tliomas 

Buckingham, Pastor of ye 

Church of Christ in Saybrook 

Dec'd June 3, 1702, in 

ye 56 year of her age." 



66 



SayhrooISs QiiadriiniUeniaL 



A poem written for the occasion by Mr. George W. BUN- 
GAY of New York, was then read by Mr. Mortimer 
Chapman of Saybrook, a descendant of one of the first 
settlers of the town. 



SAY-BROOK. 

What did the gray forefathers know, 
Two centuries and a half ago ? 
They planted colonies that grow, 

In greatness, symmetry, and beauty. 
The axe, the anvil, and the loom, 
The towering spire, the rounded dome, 
The happy kingdom of the home, 

Reveal the force of love and duty. 



Fair Lady Fenwick, pure and just, 
Whose fame smells sweetly from the dust, 
On whose sweet spirit no distrust 

Could cast a shadow of disfavor, 
Still lives in sacred memory. 
Waves voice her honor from the sea, 
Which drowns discord in harmony ; 

Its praise is salt that holds its savor. 

We jubilantly hail to-day 

The name and history of Say, 

Who ruled his realm with quiet sway 

And raised it to a pi'osperous portal ; 
With glad complaisance we can look 
At the memorials of Brook, 
Seen in the street and shady nook ; 

Say-Brook, twin-name, that's made immorl 

In potchards, flints, and arrow-heads, 
And Indian mounds, where narrow beds 
Hold bones of the untutored "Reds," 

We scan the earliest history 
Of this good, fair, and fertile land. 
Settled and tilled by a brave band, 
Guided and guarded by the Hand 

Of Him who solves life's mystery. 



Say-Brook. 6 7 

Wlicie the wild Indian's wigwam stood, 
And beasts found shelter in the wood, 
Progress has paved the iron road. 

That links the States which grow to nations. 
Ox-carts give way, the steam-car flics 
On winged wheels, where cities rise. 
With steeples pointing to the skies ; 

Here freedom's greeted with ovations. 

In early days wise men had sown 

The seeds of learning, which have grown 

To schools and colleges that own 

A lofty and a glorious name. 
One stainless flag to-day we hail, 
It never taught a lad to fail ; 
Our happy land is proud of Yale, 

And Saybrook claims in part her fame. 

After a few vvofds from the Chairman, the audience united 
in singing "America," and the benediction was pronounced 
by the Rev. Jesse Brush, Rector of Grace Church. 



^<. 



NOTE 



'T^HROUGH the kindness of C. J. Hoadly, Esci., Librarian 
-*■ of the State of Connecticut, the first speaker was enabled to 
show to the audience two letters written to Governor Winthrop by 
the ofificers in charge of Saybrook fort soon after 1700. To one 
of the letters were appended two circular bits of paper showing 
the calibre of the " great guns " for which balls were needed, one 
being a little less and the other a little more than three inches 
in diameter. 

Professor F. B. Dexter of Yale College brought from the college 
library President Stiles's "Itinerary," containing two diagrams of 
Saybrook Point, marking the location of buildings, etc., as he 
found them in 1793. With Professor Dexter's courteous per- 
mission, one of these plans has been reproduced in fac-simile 
and is prefixed to this volume. 

Among the others who were present was Mr. David Lion Gar- 
diner of New Haven, a descendant of Lion Gardiner, the engineer 
who built the first fort and laid out the town, and of David 
Gardiner, the first white child born in what is now Connecticut. 

His Excellency the Governor of the State and many other in- 
vited guests expressed to the Committee their regrets that they 
were not- able to attend. The Rev. F. N. Zabriskic, D. D., of 
Princeton, N. J., formerly pystor in Sayl^rook, wrote as follows : 

I am in receipt of your note of November 20th, inviting me and my family, 
in behalf of the Committee, to attend the commemoration of the two hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of Saybrook. I thank you heartily 
for the courtesy and kihd remembrance. 

I need not assure you that it would afford me very great satisfaction to be 
present on so interesting an occasion. Old Saybrook holds a, very warm, 



Note. 69 

place in my heart, aiul tlie recollection of my residence there is among tlie 
golden spots in my memory. As the shadows begin to lengthen .on my path- 
way, it is a source of no little gratitude and gratification to me to feel that I 
may have borne a humble part in promoting the best interests of the dear old 
town and in maintaining the faith which tlie founders brought with them to the 
new world, and for which they forfeited so much. 

I regret, however, that the state of my health and other circumstances put 
it out of my power to participate in the celebration of the 27th. Be assured 
that I shall be none the less present in spirit, and with my earnest and affection- 
ate wishes for the temporal and spiritual prosperity of the good old town and of 
every one of its inhabitants. 

My family, who have most delightful associations with Saybrook, and one 
of whom (my only son) has the honor to be a native, all join me in these con- 
gratulations and greetings. 

Yours faithfully, 

F. N. Zakiuskie. 

The Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, D. D., of Bfouklyn, N. Y., 
wrote ; 

I thank you for your kind invitation. Nothing would give me more pleas- 
ure than to join in the " Jubilee " of charming old Saybrook, in which I have 
spent so many happy hours, and whose kind people I regard so warmly. Hut 
I am \\t\^ fast and tight al home on Friday and Saturday by important church 
engagements, which I cannot possibly leave. 

I should like to swing my hat in a good hearty cheer for the "fast- 
anchored" old town, whose 'Tlatforni" was built of the soundest timber, whose 
lighthouse has never grown dim, and whose sons and daughters rise up to bless 
her memory forevermorc. It is npt easy to say "No" to so cordial an invitation 
from three of the Saybrook sisterhood, but necessity compels me to do it. 

With heartiest good wishes for a right royal celebration, I remain, 
Cordially and gratefully yours, 

Theo. L. Cuyi.er. 

•The Hon. T. C. Acton of New York sent this telegram ; 

lion. John Allen, Presiding Officer, Saybrook : — 

My Saybrook sisters : My spirit is with you to-day and rejoices in the 
success attending your happy inspiration. What man proposes and fails to 
accomplish, woman, I am proud to say, disposes and happily succeeds in this 
instance. I regret the weakness of my brothers and applaud the strength of my 
sisters. Don't be too much elated, but dwell together same as usual, in frater- 
nal love, and I'll go back to Mother. 

Alice Boteler Fenwick, through spiritual medium, 

Thomas C. Acton. 



1635 



1885 



250*"^ Anniversary 



OF THE 



Settlement of Saybrook 



K> 



